


The True Maniac

by Thepresidentofrussia23



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Maniac (TV 2018)
Genre: Altered Mental States, Bipolar Disorder, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Hallucinations, M/M, Mania, Medical Experimentation, Medical Procedures, Men Crying, Mental Anguish, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mental Institutions, Mind Manipulation, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Recreational Drug Use, References to Depression, References to Drugs, Schizophrenia, Self Confidence, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Suicide Attempt, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2020-09-01 22:43:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 20
Words: 27,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20265700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thepresidentofrussia23/pseuds/Thepresidentofrussia23
Summary: In a world not different from our own, Johnny Lawrence is the disgraced step son of a wealthy businessman and oil magnate, he struggles with bipolar I and Paranoid Schizophrenia, he wishes he could have died the day he lost the tournament.Across the city of San Francisco, Daniel LaRusso is not doing much better either despite winning the trophy a long time ago, he has a loss to confront with and to make peace with.Both rivals are set to meet again at Neberdine Pharma at a ULP Phase III drug trial set to cure everything, but is the cure worth the risk and is it all they have hoped for?





	1. The Chosen One

You are the chosen one, they say. You are meant to be the savior of the world, they say. All those words, they are my company every day, day after day, they follow me, stalk me, haunt me everyday of my life, it's almost insane. Wait...it IS insane. Funny you should say that really cause ya know, I knew this gal the other day who had a hot ass and gosh she was cute and I could go on and on...oh...oops...I went on one of my rants again. I'm sorry. I'm rude. I should start again. My name is Johnny Lawrence and you are probably one of the voices and people that come through my head each and every day, you all keep me company, it's kinda sweet, but in a creepy way. But I'm the step son of Sid Weinburg, he's the CEO of Texaco and Time Warner, yes, that guy on TV that asks you for more subscriptions, that creepy greasy guy is my step dad, funny you should ask why the bloody hell am I related to that guy in the first place. Ah, it's a long story really, I hope you have patience cause I'm probably gonna ramble and ramble and go off on maniac induced episodes where my thoughts might not connect with my words and my stories may seem more fantastical than usual, it's all up to you to whether to believe me or not, I don't care if you don't, nobody has believed me in a long while. 

You still here? Wow. I'm suprised, most voices and people tend to go away after awhile, you are creepy as hell, after my imaginary dead brother York, who by the way never existed, nor was ever born. I hope for the sake of my story, no York was ever born in San Francisco, it's highly unlikely, but hey, you never know. 

Oh and by the way, I lost my girlfriend becuase of a BLIP, lost my title for the All Valley Championship cause I was concussed and dizzy and hallucinating, only to be fucking crane kicked in the face. But hey, at least I have a job as a Rad Tech and am living on my own, so ha! You can't call me a basement dweller since I live in a apartment all by myself overlooking the ocean and ninety percent of the time, I see tourists hanging out there taking selfies and making out like it is some sort of lover's nest. Ugh, I guess I get what I pay for...literally...I got this place on the cheap side with the help of AdBuddy since I could barely afford it on my own and rent is fucking up my savings, like C'mon, stop fucking me up here damn it! And not to mention the fact that my REAL step brother's trial Ryan Weinberg, who has been accused of sexual harassment at the workplace and I was named as a witness, my step dad wants me to lie on the stand...can I do that? I mean... that just feels so wrong, very wrong. Tell me I'm not the only one that I'm feeling this way, cause I have no idea what to do next.

Oh...great Jed is here, wait just a minute while I talk to him.

"What are you doing here?" 

"Oh Johnny, just here to deliver your latest mission, the details will be soon revealed as you go."

"Don't you think this is not the right time?"

"Oh but it is."

"Oh and by the way, you will have a handler, she has a certain Jai sais ne qoui about her. You will know her when you see her...DON'T FUCK THIS UP!" 

Okay...now Jed has left and I'm still stuck with you. You have this intense, scruffy look about you...I can tell you really are a curious person, you aren't like the others before...that's interesting. Most have tried to change me, give me orders or tell me that I'm chosen or some bullshit...some of those days I'm convinced of that bullshit and actually believing it, the scariest part is not hearing a lie, it's believing the lie and perpetuating the lie. I get up and head to my apartment and flick all my pills that are there to "fix" me...you can't fix what is broken and I am broken. 

I also find the package for Neberdine Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology. Odd...they never send me anything, I haven't even heard of them at all. It is scary and creepy though, I wonder if the FBI is watching me, I might close the curtains and I should...you think I could be watched...right? I...I feel like everything has eyes and cameras and ears and mics and all the tech in the world to enhance interrogate me before I have a chance to defend myself...wait...the phone is ringing...I have to pick it up, just wait here ok?

"He...hello? Who is this?"

"This is Neberdine Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology research institute inc. Speaking, we are here to speak to you becuase you have been chosen as a "Hero" Candidate"

"Well...what DOES a hero candidate do?"

"Well we have them do experiments that others normally do not do and we treat all sorts of problems, including prostate problems"

"Popcorn problems?"

"Yes popcorn problems."

"Thank you...I'll consider it."

I hang up the phone in utter confusion and now you are looking at me like I'm an idiot! STOP STARING AT ME JOHN KREESE! STOP!


	2. The Chosen One Part II

I get up and, oh...fuck, you are there again, well done you asshole, you are still with me. Oh well, I don't have time to yell and holler at you, I have to get ready and go to work and then head over to my parents house, my brother is celebrating his engagement to Adelade and they are going to announce a wedding date and it all is amongst this scandal of his sexual harassment of a clerk. I have no ideas what I feel or where I stand anymore. 

Work is a boring affair as you can tell, you're already doing your kiyakis and forward thrust punches and I'm busy as hell scanning patients and I have lots of paperwork, not to mention the decontamination process I have to go through every day just for health purposes so I'm not literally emitting X Rays by the time I leave the hospital. 

Getting rides on the tube to my parent's mansion is very expensive for now since my budget has been tightened becuase I went on a mania induced spending spree and I racked up so many charges and fees from gambling with the furries and casinos are never happy to see me, I never understood why that was the case.

Regardless, I have to call on an AdBuddy and he soon comes over and inserts funds into my account, but in exchange, I have to view a bunch of ads that are read aloud by the AdBuddy and one of them is about Neberdine Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology. Neberdine is everywhere...the pattern is the pattern, there is a larger force at work here and I'm sure of it. I know it, I can feel it at work, it's a bit mysterious to others, but not me, I'm the only one who understands how this works at all.

I can see you have cleaned up real nicely for the occasion and I thank you for that, I have to admit Sensei, you really look handsome in a suit, it really suits you...get it? Hahaha! Oh...I see you don't get the joke? Oh...ok, oh well then. I then go in and hand my coat to the butler and head up the stairs through the foyer and then meet my parents, my step mom and my step dad, both are looking regal tonight since their oldest firstborn is celebrating his engagement again since my "Incident". I hate to admit it but the nieces and nephews are the only reason I even bother show up to family functions at all, I hate this fake, plastic family filled with Barbies and Ken's, I want something more than this Kreese...but what is it I want?

Soon my brother Ryan is busy singing and wooing Adelade and she's smiling and tearing up and all that sappy shit, I wonder if she's marrying him for the money, I would hate for that to happen to Ryan, I had my own experience with Ali Mills and it didn't end well at all. 

Soon the adults want to play balderdash but honestly, I feel suffocated and I wanted out of here as soon as possible, the fakeness was getting to me and I can hear them begging me

"Aw cmon! You used to love balderdash"

"Balderdash is fun!"

"Really? What's wrong, play with us!"

"Please play with us! Just one round! I promise!"

At that, I just can't stand it anymore, there is a roaring fury in me that explodes and I yell at the top of my lungs

"BALDERDASH IS STUPID! IT'S BULLSHIT!" 

One of my nieces burst out in tears and I can only look on in guilt as as my other brother Andrew glares at me angrily, great...another brother that hates me...fun. I storm out and I see you following me, why do you follow me? Leave me alone, just let me get a smoke, at that moment I can see one of the dog shit cleaners whirr by, it's a small machine the height of my ankle and it sucks in the shit and sprays the sidewalk clean and I walk past and go home...I have to do this, this is everything I will do, to sign up for the trial and to cast you out for good, you had a great run but you need to fuck off. 

I arrive at a grey concrete bulding with narrow Rainbow stripes running up the side and I can see the sign of the bulding is in Japanese and I enter and a Japanese woman coldly greets me and hands me a clipboard filled with paperwork, judging on the amount I have, I'm gonna be here a long time just filling out papers. Fuck my life. Another guy next to me adds "Ooo five bombs eh? See that? That's where the money comes from." Sure enough, there are five bomb logos printed on it and I add

"Is it safe?"

"Hell no! The more dangerous, the more money! That is usually how it goes." 

I look down at the form and then sign it and turn it in and the intercom says

"Johnny Lawrence to intake exam room four"

The Asian woman bows before me and I bow back and I sit down in the chair, I'm apparently going to be strapped to a lie detector machine. The blood pressure cuff is slipped on my arm and a pulse ox device is placed on my finger and a galvanic skin response device is placed across my chest, she then asks me to tell her how I feel when I see a series of photos. I can hear the clicking of the machine as the metal needles move up and down the paper, leaving trails of red, recording my reactions and my responses and she starts with the first photo which is a bottle of pills and I reply

"Poisoned"

The next picture is of a family, sitting around a table and enjoying a meal and I reply

"Suffocated"

I then see a ink blot and I reply

"Confused."

The test goes on and soon she says "I want you to turn your attention towards me as I ask you this final question." And I look up into her expressionless eyes and I hear a ding and the green light next to me lights up and she said "Congratulations, you have passed the test, you are now in the ULP Phase III trial." She bowed at me and I bowed one last time and I left the exam room, perplexed at what was the final question. I sit down, holding my badge that is labeled with the number 1 on it and as I look up, I see a man I never thought I would ever see again in the flesh, Daniel LaRusso and he is yelling at a test protocor screaming "This is bullshit and you know it! PATRICIA LUGO!" And he storms off after the woman that handed me the clipboard, I don't know what does he want with her but FUCKK!!! HE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE! DAMMIT!


	3. Windmills Part I

I get up for the day and I stretch the kinks and massage my knee, fuck, that knee has been giving me so much chronic pain for so long, I have resorted to opiates to at least bring the edge down, it doesn't help much with my life, I don't have a job becuase I'm labeled a "Drug addict."

I'm a drug addict for trying to relive chronic, never ending pain from the shattered knee, it's the same knee that suffered a devastating injury at the tournament and yet I managed to defeat Lawrence, Chozen worsened the injury and when I worked in construction, an accident shattered the knee and now I have to put it in a brace so it doesn't cave in on the weight that I put on my knee. 

I slip on the brace and grab a stack of magazines and some cash and walk to the nearby store and ask for some cigarettes, the clerk asks me how I am going to pay and I snap

"I'm gonna pay with an AdBuddy."

"No AdBuddy payments accepted here." 

I groan and pull out what little change I have and I slam it on the countertop and then he hands me my cigars and I light them, soon I feel a bliss sink over me as I limp back to the shared apartment I have with the others and I run to my room...I NEED THAT PILL! I want to suffer in a way that my knee can never give me suffering, this is the suffering that makes me scream and want to tear out my soul and I have begged for death so many times, but really, I am alone. 

San Francisco is a boring as hell city, I moved here when my mom died seven years ago, I gave up hoping for healing, my opioids and my cigarettes were all I ever needed now a days. I swipe the drawer open and open the bottle. The pill is shaped in the letter "A" and I sigh, this is my last pill. I say 

"This is it, you are my last pill, then it's fuck you forever." 

I then sit on the couch in the cramped and messy living room and I grab the remote control and mash the pill up and snort it all up and gosh...I'm in it.

I wake up hours later, I'm in tears yes, but I am alive, this pain reminds me that I am alive, that I am breathing and that I am fighting, that I'm still awake and that I'm still ok. But I have to pay someone a visit, someone I haven't visited in forever, someone that I haven't spoken to in forever. 

I then go to my wallet and yell at my roommate

"Who stole my money?"

"Well you haven't paid your share of the rent in two months!"

"MAYBE IT'S BECUASE I HAVE CHRONIC PAIN AND I CAN'T WORK! I'M ON DISABILITY!"

Oh wow...way to go you son of a bitch, you had to screw that up. Well then, let's try another tactic, the puppy brown eyes and some pleasing.

"Well can I at least have twenty bucks?"

"Well then, fine take some. Calm down junkie!" 

Oh Fuck you bitch, like you had your knee kicked in and your knee crushed by some careless truck driver who was high on No-Doze to realize you were nearly under the fucking truck.

I snatch the bill from her hand and I go to my cousin Louie's home, as usual, he is in his A-Void pod, that antisocial idiot hates everybody, well I need his money and I need it now, I'm a man on a mission and nothing is going to stop me. One problem, he changed the combination to the safe and I grunt and I head out to the backyard and i find the pod and press the button and say

"Hey Cousin? How are you?"

A mechanical click and then he replies

"Fine."

I snort

"Your yard looks like a fucking mess." 

And it literally is a fucking mess. 

"Oh um...what's the combination to the safe."

Another click and a whirr and he replies

"I changed the combination to the safe."

"Thanks for the information Captain Obvious. So what is it?"

"Your birthday." 

Really? Fuck you. 

"I brought you something to eat."

"Applejacks?" 

"Yea."

I slam the cereal on the table top in the dining room which looks like it has seen better days, I step over rubbish and junk from the good old days and I then enter the combination and then I grab the money and then leave, funny how my cousin used to be married until his wife was shot to death while coming back to work, I guess in a way, he can't move on from his loss like I can't move on from mine. 

I stand at the bus station, ready to buy the bus ticket to Newark, but as soon as I want to enter the bus station, I want the A pill, I want it so badly, I can't resist the urge and I mutter a "Fuck you" and run off. I'm so ashamed and angry, I am weak and pathetic, that's all I'll ever be. 

I approach my friend Kamreon who is playing chess with a foul mouthed furrie and the man is winning and Kameron is my source of these pills, I know that he can get me to them, I know so. I approach him and I ask

"I need more A pills."

"I can't, these pills are really hard to procure! These are from my dad's work!" 

"Then how do I get into Neberdine?"

"Sign up for a study, help my dad make millions, for all I know, you could be testing deodorant for a week."

Fuck no, I am NOT going that route, to just end up testing deodorant, no way!

"Gimme a name Kameron! Any name!"

I slide over a one hundred dollar bill and he sighs and gives in before replying 

"Patricia Lugo, and can I say something as your friend?"

"Yeah?"

"You sound like a junkie."

I roll my eyes and reply 

"I am NOT a junkie!"

And I run off to a store that can dox that woman and give me something to work with.


	4. Windmills Part II

I soon arrive at the doxxing shop and a bored Asian man looks up at me and asks

"What can I do?"

I look to the side before scribbling onto a notepad and hold it up to the Plexar glass barrier and the unamused looking man adds

"Can't read your shit writing."

I roll my eyes before adding 

"Lugo. Patricia Lugo of Neberdine Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology."

A few clicks of the keyboard later and a click of a mouse and he continues

"Patricia Lugo was arrested for disorderly conduct and public intoxication, had her arrest records wiped by ZipDox in order to get the job at Neberdine. But, ZipDox's records can be easily unscrubbed and that's why I call ZipDox, ShitDox. If you want more, you gotta pay us more than she paid ShitDox to get her records scrubbed. I'll say...500 dollars, and you get a free calendar as a frequent customer." 

I sigh and slip the Bill's under the glass partition and he hands the calendar over and then adds further

"Patricia Lugo lost custody of her daughter Usnavy after the arrest and her daughter goes to Hunter College. I could have her daughter kidnapped, I know a few guys with a white van."

I shake my head, I don't want anybody hurt, that's the last thing I want, for anybody to get hurt in my search, my quest for the A pill. Nobody should get caught up in my quest for me to drown myself in self-misery and self-pity. He then adds 

"It also says she has a FriendProxy appointment at the Bonsai Gardens."

"I'll be there."

"Ooo interception. Sneaky I see."

He smiles snidely and I pay up and leave and then I cancel her FriendProxy appointment and get a lapel pin with a FriendProxy logo on it and then I stride over to the gardens, they remind me again of someone I lost, someone I cared about, someone who meant so much to me in a fatherly way, the bonsai trees remind of him so much, it is really painful, and suddenly, she comes over and embraces me, breaking me from my thoughts and she says without a second thought.

"Remember when we met here? At this same place?"

"Oh yeah...oh yeah, all the beautiful Bonsai trees. They remind me of so much."

"I wonder what are you talking about? I was talking about the moment we met? Remember when we also went to Chinatown and we went over the Golden Gate Bridge?"

"Oh yeah, and I remember when we went to see my uncle Liam."

"Now who the fuck is Uncle Liam?"

That question brings my thoughts to a screeching halt as she continues:

"Honey? Are you ok? What are your ratings? You do not seem compatible at all."

I'm fucking pissed off, I'm not compatible with anyone and to hell with that bullshit talking lady! All she seems to do is yammer off on a tangent that I sure as hell do not talk about. Before I can stop myself, I cut her off and say:

"Listen up, I'm here to fuck your life up, I canceled your FriendProxy appointment and I'm here to ruin you forever."

She is taken aback and shocked, she seemed a bit stunned by what I was saying and I'm not sure how to react to that as she slowly digests the information and she adds

"What are you talking about."

And what am I talking about? I haven't a fucking clue at all. Perhaps it's the drugs or the energy that's fizzling out but I feel so ashamed and embarrassed, I have no idea how the hell am I supposed to get her to funnel me at all, I quickly walk away to a hall overlooking a pond where koi fish swim around and I see her again and she says

"You know, you remind me of my daughter. She's just like you. Why?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are so you desperate to join Neberdine?"

"I am addicted to one of your drugs that is undergoing a closed trial, and I really, really need it badly."

She smiles sadly and emphatically and responds

"As long as it doesn't hurt anybody, I see no harm in it."

The next week, the intercom calls out

"Daniel LaRusso for the ULP Phase III intake exam at room four."

I'm ushered off to a plain, sterile room, everything here is so fucking sterile, it drives me nuts, I hate this place so much, I wonder why I even spent so much money in the first place. Soon I'm strapped up to a machine that is reading my heart rate, my oxygen rate, my blood pressure and everything that can be measured, it all feels so unnecessary, apparently, this is what they call a polygraph test and is used to test defense mechanisms. The first picture is a bottle of pills and I respond 

"Happy. Super happy." 

The woman reminds me 

"Take your time, no need to rush."

The next picture shows a family and I can only imagine what I once had, before I lost it all and I reply

"Empty."

Another picture is of a inkblot picture, a father and a son and I reply

"A father and a son...making faces at each other."

The protocor reminds me 

"Try to describe with a feeling."

I merely reply

"Alone"

And she then says "I want you to now turn your attention to me as I ask you this final question." 

I can hear the clicking and whirring as the needle moves up and down steadily and suddenly a buzzer sounds and a red light is illuminated and she then says

"The test is complete, you may now return to the waiting area."

I'm mad, mad as hell and I yell   
"This is fucking bullshit! You rigged it! What was the question?" 

The protocor leads me out as I scream 

"This is bullshit and you know it! PATRICIA LUGO!" 

The woman turns around and begins

"No no no! No more favors! I have bosses around! Go!" 

I'm mad all right and I add 

"You promised to funnel me through!"

"I got you through the consideration for the intake! You failed the exam, now it's out of my hands! Go! My bosses are watching!"

I know it's a low blow, that I'm sweeping her leg and I have to strike first, to strike hard and to show no mercy and here goes:

"Patricia I know where your daughter is, her name is Usnavy and she goes to Hunter College and I know a man with a white van who will kidnap her."

For a second, a panicking look flashes on her face and she adds 

"You are kidding!"

"Nope! I'm just goal oriented."

And she taps her fingers onto the table top before raising her hands in surrender and adding

"Just five minutes, please don't hurt my daughter."

I storm off and sit down and before I know it, I see Johnny Lawrence, oh fuck, well then. He looks tired as hell and hasn't slept for years at all, his hair is graying and turning white, his golden locks are almost gone, he has changed dramatically since I beat him at the tournament. He looks just as stunned as I am but niether of us says anything as Patricia comes over and hands me the number 7 badge and I'm in! Yes! Yes! Yes! I'm in and all I have to do is take the drugs and get cured...maybe. Soon the head Nurse Carl leads us and scans our badges and leads us to the elevator and lucky me and Johnny, we are the Odd numbered candidates, fun. Real fun.


	5. Windmills part III

Oh...great, you have got to be shitting me all over again! Not only is LaRusso there, he is in the same experiment as I am and in the same fucking group. I'm number one so I stand at the front and I recive my Neberdine uniform and shoes as Carl reads aloud the rules and they are tough and I groan as my bags are checked and handed back to me. I then shove them in the drawer below the hexagon shaped pod where I am assigned to sleep, it's labeled "One" and I get in and get dressed, I look like a mental patient from the days of when I had been hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, I saw you there and you took amusement at my situation and grinned as I screamed and cursed out nurses while strapped down in a gurney all by myself, screaming for my mom as my step dad Sid insisted I was crazy, that I was mental, and that it was a fitting ending for me. 

LaRusso glared daggers at me and suddenly York strode by and added 

"That man is your handler. Follow him, he will help you save the world."

"York, what the fuck are you talking about? LaRusso is the same guy I bullied back in high school, not to mention the fact that he beat me in the tournament!"

York walked back and snapped

"You wanna save the world?"

I nod, my body is shaking as he adds

"Then stop this nonsense of the perpetual rival, it will help you nowhere! Understood?" 

I nod and I reply

"I am tired of being the chosen one York."

"Well guess what Johnny Lawrence, you don't have a fucking choice! You are destined to save this world, whether you like it or not!" 

I nod again and he is gone, and when I turn around, LaRusso's jaw drops and shakes his head before adding

"You're a fucking nutjob, you know that Johnny."

I roll my eyes, like hes the one to speak at all considering the fact that he came here, to this Neberdine bulding of all places. I sigh and soon we sit down and they make us watch a video on how our trial will proceed. According to the video, I will first take the A pill, the A pill represents Agonia, this pill will pull my core traumas to the surface and with the help of the headset, I'll be able to see the powerful dreams, but nobody can see them but me and the scientists, it is meant to be safe as well.

The second pill is the B pill, this is the behavioral pill which will pull and twist and destroy my defense mechanisms and shine a light on the blind spots and expose me for who I am to me, that sounds like a tough stage to go through. 

The Confrexa stage will force me to confront myself as a whole and move on and become a better human being and find radical acceptance for what I've been through, and soon the cheery, tinny music ends and Dr. Muramoto from the video and he smiles polietly as he asks

"Any questions from the video?" 

I and LaRusso and a handful of other subjects raise their hands and he nods and smiles broadly and adds

"Good." 

After the question and answer session, us odds are up, the evens are being provided their pre weight meals. Oh jesus spare me the sad bullsit and don't give me your sad ass face! You never cared about me at all! You never did care about me Kreese, you fucking choked me and nearly killed me for shits sake! And of all people to hallucinate, I have to hallucinate you! Fuck you Kreese! This is why I'm at the experiment! To get rid of you at all costs! By the way, TAKE A SHIT OR SOMETHING! STOP STARING AT ME! All right, I don't have time for this, I have to get on one of the dentist office looking chairs and I know I have to wait before I'm activated, what if its during the session, soon the nurse puts on a pulse ox finger tracker and I get a pill, one of them warns LaRusso to wait for Dr. Muramoto to give the signal and a heavy upper chest apron is placed on my chest, Carl explained that it was to protect me from nominal residue and it looks like one of the aprons I wore when taking an X Ray for my broken arm when I was still in Cobra Kai as a student, suddenly the doctor says 

"Subjects, you may now ingest your pills." 

The others swallow their pills and drink the water that comes in another cup, but I don't do that, I quickly thumb the pill to the side as the machine activates and I close my eyes and I see random colors flashing before my very eyes, they are terrifyingly blood red and everyone is quietly asleep, trying to see their traumatic experiences. I now regret what I have done, coming here was a risk and I regret taking that risk so much, it hurts deeply within. You are still fucking smirking and smiling, wearing your pathetic gi that isn't worthy of being worn on you at all. You clearly should go the fuck away Kreese, all you have been is a burden, I thought you could be the father figure Sid never was, except you proved me wrong, you used me and you wanted me to hurt LaRusso, you wanted Bobby to fucking hurt LaRusso in a way that could've destroyed his knee! Suddenly I see LaRusso's face crumple up and a tear rolls down his cheek and he grips the arm rests and I feel a pang of sympathy, I now understand how much destruction I have caused and it is ugly as hell, I should be the one paying the price, not him, never him.


	6. Having a day

I was at the middle of the line, wanting to throttle Johnny for fucking joining the same study as me but there was literally nothing I could do, not unless I wanted to be shamed constantly for the rest of my life. Japanese people had a way of carrying their family honor as if their life depended on it. I literally had personal experience with that becuase of the death battles I had with Chozen. That is a story I would rather not go further into detail. 

Soon I sat down in one of the chairs that resembled a dentist chair and they placed a heavy apron on me, the head set was clicked into place and I was handed the A pill...what I had been searching for...it was here in my hands and just as I was about to swallow it, Nurse Carl warned me 

"Don't take it. Wait for the signal."

I quickly hold the pill in its little cup before me as my hands shake from desire...from want...from the addiction to these A pills that were ruining me. I wanted to ruin myself, I wanted to self destruct in a spectacular way. 

The doctor soon said "Subjects, you may now ingest your pills."

And I quickly swallowed the pill and drank the mini cup full of water handed to me by an orderly and the humming of the machines roared and I was back in there. 

LaRusso impatiently stood nearby, tapping his foot as his mother and father were filling up the gas tank and talking, none of their conversations intrested the young boy much, he leaned his chin on the dashboard of the car and yawned slightly, he looked over and saw his father pay for the gas and his mother sat in the back row of the car as she protested 

"You do realize Daniel is still very short and small right Albert?"

Albert rolled his eyes and snapped

"Oh shut up woman! Let me raise my son! He wants to sit in the front? Let him! He wants to enjoy some fresh air for fucks sake!" 

Lucille shot back

"Oh and like you know how to raise a teenage boy! Why, I'm glad I filed for divorce from your stinky ass you piece of shit!"

And they are at it again, arguing and yelling as my dad is driving, now that right there is a bad combination, as the yelling continues at a fever pitch, LaRusso yells at both of em

"Niether of you are even realizing you both suck at being parents!" 

And at that moment, the car swerved into the left lane of a two lane road and the sixteen wheeler smashes into the tiny car and sends it flying over the cliff, throwing out Daniel and Lucille, while Albert is unconscious and he remains in the car, being crushed to death and the car soon ignites and burns him to death as well. The smoke plume is dense and black as nothing is left of the shattered remains of the family car. Niether Daniel, nor Lucille know it, but Albert is dead. 

In the control booth where the scientists are working and grabbing data and studying it, 

Dr. Fujita notices something unusual about number six's data output.

Dr. Mantleray asks her

"How are the subjects."

"Doing well. However, I see data anomalies from One and Six. Number One may not have ingested the pill at all, he isn't putting out any data. As for Six, it seems as though he has been here before, like he knows the grooves to the narrative. Strange..." 

Soon Dr. Fujita adds

"Ten seconds till re entry."

And as the red light fades to a harsh white glow above them, she adds

"Welcome back subjects, welcome back."

Johnny and the rest of the odds were eating when Nurse Carl added

"One, five and six, Dr. Muramoto wants to see you." 

Number five groaned and muttered 

"Oh shit."

Johnny asked him

"What's wrong."

"What's wrong? Whats wrong is that we have been flagged, means that they saw something in our numbers they don't like! They call you up and talk to you before they kick you out, it doesn't matter what you say."

"And you know this becuase?"

"I have been doing this for decades, you can do it too if you can work the system like I do, I do at least thirty or forty a year. Pretty good money too." 

Johnny also adds

"You're the man who pointed out the bombs on my form..."

"Yep that's me." 

Johnny leaned back as Daniel sat down in a room filled with TV screens filling the side of one room and cameras ready to film his damn face, he was anxious and fearful. He sat down in the chair and Dr. Fujimori asked him "How do you feel?"

"Tired, like I just want to cry a lot."

Fujimori handed him a tissue box but LaRusso didn't touch it as Fujimori continued 

"Describe your reality."

"My reality is that I'm depressed and that I don't matter." 

Soon it was time for Johnny Lawrence to talk and he sat down before the scientist and the man asked him 

"How do you feel?"

"Empty."

"Describe your reality."

"My reality is that I don't matter. That whatever I do, I always get pushback. And in the end, I get criticized."

"Why don't I ask you the most important question? What do you think is wrong with you?"

"You know the movie It's a Wonderful Life?"

"Yes."

"If that happened to me, there would be no difference in the world."

The scientist took the notes and then smiled and before adding 

"Mr. One, our data output concludes you were not under fully. Care you explain?"

Johnny was terrified, so this was what it was like to be on trial for your life, to be unable to form words, much less sentences to try and defend oneself from certain death.


	7. Having a day Part II

I trembled in my chair as the scientist continued

"What was the core trauma you experienced when you took the A pill?"

"You mean...like the worst day of my life?"

"Your core trauma please."

I sighed as I remembered that incident, of course. The memories of it all flooded me, the reason why we had to hold another engagement party becuase of what I had done at the first engagement party. That day I was more depressed and I wished someone would listen to me for once. But that day, my younger brother was the star of the show, it was his day since he finally wooed Adelade, the woman I had been pining over secretly. That day, he was beaming and his blushing fiancee was giggling, everyone was smoking Cuban cigars and gimlets were being handed out, everyone was happy, everyone was celebrating his engagement except for me. All I wanted was happiness and at this moment, I felt like there were no reasons in the world to live anymore.

My brother took the mic and began to sing Sting, whaveter that meant. He was clearly in love with her as he sang. 

He was a pretty damn good singer too, everyone loved him, he was the golden boy. Me? I was just some unwanted stepchild, a waste of space, waste of breath, waste of carbon, waste of time, waste of energy. I was all that and more, I should never have been born in the first place. 

Maybe if I had never been born, my mom would have had a better life, you would have your perfect karate champion that would have beaten Daniel. I wish I had never been born and that was a desire that was never stronger than at this time right now. 

I was a pathetic human being that was irredeemable of anything I had done, I was not worth the effort you put into me, nor the energy, nor the time, not even the passion, you were right Sensei, I am a loser and I always will be a loser, I stood over the ledge, they say suicide is for cowards, they don't know better. 

They are cowards themselves becuase they have never tried to meet death like I did. I jumped off the ledge, falling, falling, and plop...I opened my eyes and I realized...I was alive, I landed on the plastic roof overlooking the party as my step mom screamed 

"JOHNNY! JOHNNY! OH JOHNNY!"

Her sobs were loud and uncontrollably heaving, her tears streamed down her face, everyone shocked and astonished as everyone looked up and saw me, on the fucking rooftop. I was a fucking loser for surviving the fall, I wanted to die that day, but somehow, I managed to survive, it was a damn miracle too, that day I lost so much blood too...I was fucking lucky I didn't break my spine...God, being in a wheelchair for life would have been a humiliating experience for the rest of my life.

As I finished the tale, the scientist smiled and handed me another A pill and a graduated beaker filled with water and I groaned in displeasure, he added

"To verify this core trauma, we need you to retake the pill." 

"No."

"If you do not take the pill, I will call security, escort you out. No money. No honor. Just shame." 

"No."

The scientist is getting agitated and frustrated. He starts speaking angrily at me in Japanese. He then barks out

"Swallow!"

I slowly and carefully grab the pill from the table top and I swallow it. I grab the beta headset and wear it as he orders me sharply

"Drink!"

And I drink the water. And soon this time, I'm back, but at a different party, this time it's me and Ali Mills at a country club party. She's as brilliant as ever, but now, all she does is cause me pain and misery.

I'm burdened with this relationship, it's like a object you want to get rid of but nobody wants it, I don't love her, not after her being a plant for my parents, she betrayed my trust, she accepted their money, earned my trust and betrayed it all in a fell swoop. Her girlish charms do not fool me at all as I storm at her and yell

"You are a fucking spy! A witch! Stop the shit eating grin right there!"

"What? Spy? I'm not a spy!"

"Yes you are a spy! You're a plant by my parents to get me married to you!"

"Uh excuse me? What the hell are you talking about Johnny? Are you fucking mental?"

"Mental? Look who's talking! You're the one who accepted bribes from my parents in order to date me! Isn't that right?" 

"No! I dated you becuase I loved you! Now I can see why I don't!"

And all I can do is scream and howl as the delusions get worse, I start pulling at my hair and scream

"You FUCKING FBI SPIES! I'LL UPROOT YOU ALL! AHHH!"

That delusion I had, it was a fucking convincing one as well. It was horrible and I feel so gulity over yelling such fucked up, ugly things at someone who would never understand. 

The doctors and nurses soon sedated me and tied me down, my karate skills were rendered useless as I was in a strait jacket, screaming and cursing and yelling obscenities at the nurses.

I try thrashing around, but I'm strapped down in a gurney, all by myself, screaming for my mom, anybody to help me, and Sid is there and he says

"That boy wasn't even worth it. He's mental for life."

Of course that bastard had to come in and say some shit like that! I hated him and his mouth! Goddamn him to rot! I hope he rots! 

And soon the scientist thanks me and lets me go, LaRusso leans over and says 

"You were there for a long time. What happened."

"Oh, it's fine. I'm fine."

"I refused to take the A pill becuase I thought you would activate me during the trial."

"What? No! Look, to tell you the truth, I lied that I was so that you would stop melting down. As far as I am concerned, there is no plan or pattern to the universe, it's just chaos."

I feel an illusion shatter before my very eyes. York lied to me. Either that or the world really didn't need saving at all.


	8. Furs by Sebastian

I sighed in a deep bitterness that could never be expressed in words, I couldn't belive that Dr. Muramoto had to force me to relive my mental breakdown that I had I front of Ali. That breakdown was the worst, but it would be a minor episode in comparison to the schizophrenic episode and panic attack I had when I found out that Tommy died. 

I fidgeted with a massive knot of my thread as Muramoto grilled LaRusso and he came out and asked me 

"I'm gonna ask this again, why are you here?"

I look down in shame, I have no idea what to say or do and he adds

"Why the bloody hell did you think I was your fucking handler of all things?"

I take a deeper breath and I begin

"I'm a paranoid schizophrenic, that means I often get convinced of irrational thoughts and feelings that are considered abnormal for the situation. I also get fixated on people and hallucinate them a lot. And I mean a lot for a good reason. I had several BLIPs around the time you came in to Reseda, but the psychosis episodes got worse and worse...I had to be institutionalized for nearly nine months after you beat me. Only my friends knew about my schizophrenia and my Bipolar I diagnosis...I trusted them deeply becuase they and I had gone through rough patches."

I feel my eyes are getting wet and I can see a sympathetic look on your face, as if you are trying to pretend to care when you never really cared about me in the first place. GO THE FUCK AWAY JOHN KREESE! GO! I hate hallucinations and I hate you as well, whether you be in the flesh or in a hallucination. 

LaRusso looks like he sympathizes me and I hate that so fucking much, I do NOT want or need his godforsaken sympathy at all! He adds

"I'm so so sorry Johnny, if I knew about your BLIPs, about your psychosis episodes...I...I never would have lead you on like that."

"I fucking thought my world was melting when you rained water on me...I wanted to fucking smoke a joint, stop hallucinating for shits sake! Argh!" I grab at my hair and start tearing it off from the roots, I'm so fucking close to a meltdown and Daniel was trying to soothe me, to calm me, but it doesn't matter. Nothing matters. 

I start sobbing and weeping so much, my body starts shaking with sobs and I wanna scream loudly, but I keep all the screams in my head and I wipe my tears away. I then fall asleep in my octagon shaped pod which is a niche in the wall. I wake up the next morning and I can hear the mechanical birds chirping and the terrarium across from us is glowing with the sun as it rises and we eat a very disgusting and tasteless breakfast that has our food shaped in cubes. One of the subjects commented

"This tastes like my cat's uterus."

LaRusso incredulously shot

"You have been inside a cat's uterus?"

Subject eleven added

"Never eat your cat's uterus."

I could feel myself retch and blanch from the thought of that uterus thingy all over. Oh shit. Soon the television displays above our round white table said "Odd experiment time" and we all stood up and we entered the same experiment room, it was soundproofed and I sat on my dentist looking recliner chair and the orderly slipped on my blood pressure cuff and pulse ox tag and they handed me a blue colored B pill. B for Behavioral. The same process was repeated for the other Odds and the scientist implored through the microphone 

"Subjects, please ingest your pill."

I and the others swallowed our pills and the big light above us turned green and then my vision all went dark.

I was in a home and I was with a man named Dennis LaRusso and he was cradling our adopted kids...it was a scene of domestic bliss. One of the kids was screaming and running around and I noticed I was in the 1960s era San Francisco and everyone was dressed hippie style and I could hear 1960s music blaring from the loudspeaker as I waited at the DMV. I was here to report a dangerous driver in order to get their address and go to the address and rescue the lemur named Wendy. I finally got my number called out and I got to the counter with the lady with thick and heavy glasses. I then tell her with a thick and heavy southern accent 

"Hello, I'm here to report a dangerous driver."

"Sir? You do realize that you need their address, correct?"

"If I had their address, I would have gone over and dealt with them myself."

"You really shouldn't do that. I really don't know why you really bother with this, it's not worth it."

I carefully copy down the address from the reflection of her glasses and I add out 

"Now that I'm here actually doing it, I feel like a snitch and I ain't one."

I then walk right out and then I get dressed and get Dennis to scout out the fur store with me. He confusedly looks at me and adds

"What my love wants, my love gets." And he pecks me on the cheek and it feels like magic and when I turn to face him, it is Daniel LaRusso, except he's wearing a Dan Marino Jersey and has pale blue shorts on, what the hell is going on? He isn't supposed to be in my dream! I know this isn't normal at all but I get out of the car with my husband and Sebastian soon greets us and he is a portly man who is carrying a black and shiny fur and I excuse myself to go to the bathroom and I see the "Employees Only" door with the code on the sticky note plastered onto the door, such numbnuts! I unlock the door and I see a man sitting before a TV, wearing a Walkman round his neck and his headphones are blaring disco music and another man walks in from another door across the mini bar where Wendy's cage lay and I quickly sneak out. It's not worth the risk and I then quickly run to the main showroom area and I quickly drag Darren with me and add over my shoulder 

"He always looked better in leather anyway!"


	9. Furs by Sebastian Part II

"Ok...what the fuck was going back there?"

"Uh....I...I, You know that woman that I took care of at the hospice where I'm a nurse at?"

"Yea?"

"Her name is Nan and well she had a massive fallout with her daughter and she wanted me to personally deliver the lemur, named Wendy to her daughter."

"Well if that lemur meant so much to Nan, why didn't her daughter come and pick it up?"

"Nan specifically insisted that it had to be me that delivered the lemur to the daughter, just before she died, she tells me to kick everyone out and she says 'Joseph, I want you to personally deliver this lemur from me to my daughter Lucille'" 

Darren sighs and shoots

"Well you could have told me earlier, I would have helped you steal the lemur if it meant so much to you, and shouldn't we report this to the proper authorities anyway?"

"No, becuase the lemur is illegal and if they find her, they will send her back to Madagascar! And Nan insisted on her daughter receiving the lemur!"

"All right, all right dearie, let's steal a lemur tonight."

That night Dennis and Joseph put their children to bed and made the babysitter watch over the children and the house as they left for their secretive mission. They didn't realize that someone from Fish and Wildlife was already tailing them the whole time. 

Soon Joseph pulled out a brick and smashed the glass on the entry door to the store and Darren gaped

"I don't even know you anymore!"

Jospeh coolly replied 

"I'm just goal oriented.  
Plus these morons didn't even bother install a alarm system in the first place at all! Ha! What a walk in the park!"

Dennis rolled his eyes and unlocked the latch to the door and swung it open, he could hear the broken glass crinkle beneath his feet, cutting into the tension in the air. Their breath fogged in the air as they held hands and they could feel the human warmth of each other. Darren reassured Joseph

"It's ok Jospeh, I'm here, you're safe with me."

They then entered into the back room and followed the same route Joseph had taken to the bathroom and he tried to enter the same passcode but apparently they had changed it so Jospeh asked Darren

"What's the numbers you say before you start dancing?"

"Five, six, seven, eight?"

Soon the older man punched in the code into the pad and it turned green before clicking open.

Meanwhile, the owners sons were returning and one of them noticed the broken glass and walked as they saw the chaos and saw the two staring at the cage of Wendy in the restricted area of the backroom and he knocked the two men out with the brick that they used to break the glass door entrance to the store.

The tall beefy muscular man splashed them awake with the water pistol that Joseph had painted black and added

"Wake up knuckle heads! Why are you here?"

The store owner Sebastian added

"You see that lemur there? It's mine now!"

Darren shot back

"You stole the lemur!"

Sebastian retorted 

"I take the lemur! The lemur is mine!"

"Dude that is so far from how property law works!"

"No matter! You two will stay hog tied here like little pigs while I, on the other hand will skin this godforsaken lemur and make a killing selling the skin! Ha! Killing!"

"Hey! That lemurs not yours!" Joseph screamed as he tried wriggling through his ties and he cursed silently. Why hadn't he taken escape classes seriously enough? At that moment, sirens blared outside as officer Johnson Kreese blared out

"Come out with your hands up! The property is surrounded! Surrender peacefully with the hostage unharmed and nobody will get hurt!"

Sebastian sniffed and announced suddenly

"Boys, I wanna teach you something your grandfather taught me, he said 'Son, the American dream is like a tree, you keep climbing higher and higher until you can touch the fucking sun, and when someone tries to chop down your tree, you fuck em in the face!'"

He cocked his submachine uzi guns and tossed his son two AK-47s and they both followed after their father as they began to fight back against law enforcement, Darren and Joseph were busy untying the knots when Darren teased

"I might have to leave you here"

"Don't you dare!"

Soon they wriggled out and they grabbed the cage and scrambled out as they tried to hightail it out of the entrance where bullets were flying and one of the sons of Sebastian had been shot dead and his blood stained the glass littered floor red, painting it in stark hues and giving the night a terrifying glint. Both men gasped and they scooted back into the back room and Darren found the exit door and Joseph carried the cage and hauled it into their station wagon and drove away into the night as fast as they could.

The next day, they arrived at the LaRusso's residence and Joseph hauled the cage and rang the doorbell. The sleep deprived woman opened the door and glared

"Do you realize what time it is?"

"I'm sorry, I won't take much long, I should explain why I'm here."

"No, you don't know why you are here."

"What?"

Soon Jospeh walked inside the home and looked around, it seemed cutesy and boring and cheesy, it...it didn't seem homey at all. Soon the woman came back with coffee and said 

"That lemur my mother sent you was not an 'I love you' lemur, it was a 'Go fuck yourself' lemur." 

"Excuse me"

"All right, lemme tell you why."

And soon the woman opened the letter her mother sent her and it was a rude letter that told her that she should have never been born and that lemurs were better than human children and that they don't talk back or destroy what you make of yourself. Joseph was soon ushered out and he hauled back the cage and slammed it into the trunk and Darren snapped 

"Oh C'mon that bitch doesn't realize we almost got killed getting her lemur!"

"Forget it, just drive."

Darren started the car and Joseph opened up by saying

"My father...he walked out when I was seven. Mom remarried when I was nine and died when I was twelve from breast cancer."

"Then who was there at the tournament when I beat you there?"

"My step mom Angelica." 

"I'm so sorry...I...I didn't know.."

Soon they held hands as Joseph sobbed softly and he wiped away his tears as they pulled into their driveway and they hauled the cage inside and Joseph decided to lay on the couch while Darren carried out the trash and paid the sitter and she was gone. Soon Darren carried out the trash as the cars from last night pulled up and he fell onto his knees and said 

"I surrender, please leave my husband and kids alone!"

And all of this happened as the globular clusters floated on in the minds of Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso as the   
G.R.T.A machine whirred and buzzed, picking apart their thoughts and memories, as the large colorful light above them flashed red and green, bulldozing their defenses as they dozed on while the scientists took careful and detailed notes and one main in a lab coat crossed his arms and he smirked as he monitored the brain activity of one and six.


	10. Just Like You

Josiah Lawrence was riding in a small car to a seance when he pulled out his blue and gold ticket and he heard a classical song that reminded him of someone that he knew...someone that he once loved. He snapped 

"Take that damn song off."

"Sorry boss."

Soon the song was off and the thick and heavy silence permeated the air as he inhaled the air and said

"Smell the air?"

"Boss? All I smell is manure."

"The air is cleaner here. Things happen here."

"The only thing that happens when I leave San Fransisco is me getting shot boss "

"You exaggerate."

"The speed run in Antioch? Shot. The job in Alcatraz? Shot. The heist in Dallas? Shot."

"Tecnically Alcatraz is in San Francisco."

"Still counts boss."

Josiah rolled his eyes as he saw a figure up ahead on the road before him as the driver slowed down and stopped. The figure was masculine and wearing a suit and the man turned around and Josiah muttered

"My eyes have got to be deceiving me."

"Maybe it's fate telling you that you need a partner boss."

Josiah rolled his eyed as the figure turned around and he suddenly recognized the man as David LaRusso, the man smiled coyly as Josiah added

"Get this man away from here, I don't care if you have to drive to Atlantis."

"Boss, I'm gonna need a boat to drive to Atlantis."

David sauntered over to the side of the car as Josiah opened his car door and smiled coldly as David continued 

"What a wonderful coincidence, meeting you here."

Josiah snapped

"And it is disturbing to see you too, the neverdies don't just let anybody in you know."

"Oh Josiah, you should worry about yourself you know..." He procured a blue and gold invitation identical to the one that Josiah had in his pocket and replied

"They already let me in."

"No doubt" Josiah snapped by letting David in and closing the door on him as the driver sped up and David screamed

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL!"

Josiah walked all the way to the mansion where the seance was being held, armed guards with submachine guns stood at the gates and he held up his invitation and they stepped aside to let him in and he walked past the fountain at the courtyard and the main butler with a silk and jewel encrusted turban, flanked with more gorilla faced guards said

"Your invitation please?"

Josiah held up his invitation and the butler said

"Welcome to the Full Moon seance. Lady Neberdie awaits you inside."

Josiah walked inside as different rituals and magic tricks were being conducted and he walked to the main foyer where a woman that was Arlie Mills, his ex girlfriend and she had a blue sparkly dress with a flat headpiece on her head with jewels and flowers showering over her face and golden curly locks framed her dainty face, her lips were painted a blood red and she had blue eyeshadow on and black eyeliner and mascara. Her nails were manicured and polished as she strode and gently grazed her fingernails against his cheek as he flinched and pulled away from her in discomfort, she still brought up memories of joy and pain and sadness...she used to be someone that he thought he would spend the rest of his life with until he found out his parents had her paid to leave her career in Paris as a ballerina just to love him and to marry him, the discovery was so horrible that it caused him to have a mental breakdown and it forced him into the sanitarium where he discovered his talent for magic.

She gazed at him sadly before looking at the majestic snow owl that was perched on the post and she sighed before ruefully adding

"You know what Owls stand for?"

"No?"

The classical band music kept floating through the halls and the rooms as Josiah looked up and back at Arlie and she continued as if she never heard him speak and she added

"They say that owls will lead us to a safe place."

"Except I'm in a dangerous place right now." Josiah shot back and walked into the social hall where the others were gathered and chattering animatedly around the mirror which was surrounded with candles and flowers and feathers as a part of a ceremony that would be performed once the moon reached maximum illumination. Josiah saw one woman comment 

"Oh...he's looking just as lovely as ever...too bad he didn't marry Arlie..."

And soon he sat down annoyed and he replied 

"Well...do you know how did I get my title "Sir"?"

The woman added 

"How? Tell me how?"

"Ok...so I took a man's peerage through an agreement that if he couldn't figure out the secret of my trick, he would give me his peerage."

"Can you demonstrate to all of us?"

A crowd was beginning to bulid up and they were all waiting so Josiah nodded and pulled aside one of the turban wearing butlers and said

"May I borrow you for a second?"

"Only for a second as the ritual will begin soon."

Josiah pulled out a deck of cards and said

"Pull a card"

The butler pulled a card and Josiah continued 

"Is the card a queen of diamonds?"

"Yes."

And the butler flipped over the card and showed to everyone indeed that it was a Queen of diamonds. And the main butler smacked a gong and announced 

"Lady Neberdie the first Neverdie, the true goddess of Luna is here!"

David managed to get into the mansion, angrily cursing as he stood amongst the crowd as they all applauded when the grey haired woman with a feathered and jeweled head piece and Josiah gasped when he saw a man being propped up and walked by a bodyguard...he recognized that man...that man was Tommy. His breath was caught in his throat as the woman waved and smiled and tittered, there was something off about her, but he couldn't place his finger on it. 

The scientists were examining the charts that the subjects were outputting from the computer and Dr. Muramoto was concerned about subject one. Subject one's brain activity was peaking around this part...it was strange...all so very strange as another doctor, Dr. Kreese grinned in a corner...he was enjoying seeing his former student and now current subject squirm.


	11. Exactly Like You II

I gulped and sighed before going to David 

"Let's go on, meet Gertie Neberdine I'll introduce you to her."

David cocked his head in suspicion before following me. Gertie was dressed in a purple glittery dress and silk gloves and a feathery headpiece with netting that women wore in the 1940s. She was tall and wearing heels and she wore bright red lipstick and she appeared to be in her seventies. I brought over my husband and she smiled and leaned on my chest, clinging onto my arms and spontaneously bubbled out 

"Oh, Sir Josiah Thompson! I have missed you!"

She then pulled herself off of me and she noticed David and added sharply, as if she were a mother scolding a child 

"Oh...it's you...David Martin. I heard you and Sir Josiah were separated."

I broke in at that moment before the conversation turned too personal

"We were. No more."

David looked at the lifeless looking Tommy in the bodyguards' arms and asked hesitantly 

"What's...wrong with him?"

Gertie's smile faltered for a brief moment before resuming it's normal brightness and she quickly added 

"Sometimes we find it hard to let go of those that we have lost."

David quizzically looked at her before hastily adding 

"You must understand that I have to go."

Gertie was strangely clinging onto David for a moment too long before she let go and we stood near the edge of the corner and I whispered 

"The 52nd chapter."

"What?"

"You and half of the lunatics like me are after the 52nd lost chapter of Don Quixote."

"Who else isn't?" 

"Well. You're going to need my help."

"Right."

The gong sounded again and the butler with the big jeweled and feathered turban began

"We begin tonight with a very special presence amongst us tonight. Do you feel it. Do you hear it?"

The butler banged the gong again and announced 

"THE MOON HAS REACHED MAXIMUM ILLUMINATION!"

Gertie Neberdine walked to the mirror and spoke softly to herself as she was flanked by the McMurphy twins

"Tonight I speak to lady Diana. Tonight I speak to the goddess of the moon. Who will be tonight's astral nodes? Oh...them two I think." 

And she pointed at us two, me and David. Kreese, literally, go fuck yourself, really. Just. Shut. Up. Really. Shut your fucking mouth, all you know is how to torture me and make me feel like an absolute fool. Soon they began the Jazzy version of the song "Exactly Like You" and Tommy walked between me and David and started dancing and snapping fingers and clapping and suddenly David magically disappeared into thin air and Gertie exclaimed 

"Oh! He went into the astral plane! How wonderful! It's working!"

Soon Ashley stepped into the ring of candles in David's place and started dancing as well and I stepped out of the ring of candles and walked out and saw that the stairs leading up to the next floor were guarded by more armed guards and i walked to the place where the chandelier hung over the main hall and I noticed that it was shaking slightly and when I looked up, David was clinging to the chain and trying to get to the ledge and I angry-whispered 

"Hey! You were supposed to wait for my signal!"

"Well I sure never listened to you didn't I?"

I rolled my eyes and I headed up the stairs where I found a drawing room and I started searching in the drawers when David suddenly appeared and added innocently 

"Looking for something?"

I suddenly jumped up in shock like I had touched a hot wire and I hissed 

"Damn! You have to stop scaring me like that!"

"Well wouldn't that take away the element of suprise wouldn't it?" 

"I suppose so."

"By the way, I suppose you served time for the Sister Wendy job."

"And I suppose I should keep reminding myself to stop trusting you. It's long time waiting that I should put my words into practice."

"Oh you don't regret stealing from that Nun and poisoning her gimlet. You only regret being caught."

"No. The only thing I ever regret is trusting you!"

David poured himself and me a gimlet and I snorted

"I suppose this isn't poisoned?"

"Oh you only realize that was the only gimlet I poisoned."

"To mistakes then."

We both raised our glasses and we drank before he added 

"I know where the lost chapter is?"

"And how do you know?"

"A wise old crone up a alleyway in Barcelona told me."

"You poisoned her too?" 

"Jesus! You and your obsession with poisoned gimlets!"

"Whatever! Do we have a deal or am I flying solo?"

"Deal."

"I trust you. Don't make me regret it."

"I swear I will never betray you again."

Soon we passed down countless hallways and corridors and suddenly, I saw York, he was sitting there when he said

"Hey...Didn't you know that me and Jerome were twins in the womb?"

I shook my head and he continued 

"Except he ended up strangling me."

He choked on ectoplasm and faded away and David pulled me away and we approached the mirror and David held out his hand and said

"The crone said that the mirror would lead me anywhere I wanted in the world. Matches please." 

I pulled out a box of matches and he lit the candles on either side of the mirror and then spun the mirror counterclockwise seven times and then when we turned around, the day room was much brighter and suddenly I ran out to the foyer where the owl once sat and I realized that she was right...The Owl did lead me to a safe place...or did it? I then unlocked the safe and pulled out a wad of paper the size of my thumbnail and David whispered in wonder

"It's so tiny."

"I guess people were smaller then."

Suddenly he pulled out a pistol and threatened 

"I need you to hand over that tiny chapter."

"Why? Why were you pointing that gun at me? You could have asked. I would have handed it to you." 

I handed it to him and walked up the stairs and continued 

"My mistake is that I keep trusting people like you. And people like you always hurt me. Stab me. And yet, I trust. So shame on me for trusting you. Shame on me for trusting Mr. Kreese. Shame on both of you."

I went up the stairs and found myself at the party. Women were gigging and drinking as card tricks were played out and a woman warned me 

"My tarot cards say that sudden destruction can lead to liberation."

I was about to exit the mansion when Lady Gertie herself walked over and said

"I tried it you know. The chapter. It doesn't work."

I pointedly shot back

"Every mistake I made began with 'It's too good to be true' your security leaves much to be desired. Expect a bill first thing."

I then got into my car and Bobby drove me away and I said

"How did you get away?"

"Sorry boss. Got shot again."

"You know...life is simple as hell until you bring a partner along."

And suddenly the machinery was turned off and the flashing lights above them turned a soft white as Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso opened their eyes groggily and squinted against the bright light as Dr. Aluze spoke over the speaker

"Welcome back subjects. Welcome back."


	12. Larger Structural Issues

I opened my eyes and squinted against the bright light as I could hear Dr. Azumi announce over the loudspeakers from the microphone in the glass walled booth and control panel across from us in a neutral voice 

"Welcome back subjects. Welcome back."

The orderlies dressed in grey uniforms and Rainbow colored badges came around and undid our metal headsets and removed our pulse ox devices and blood pressure cuffs and Nurse Carl ordered us in a authoritative manner as we headed back to the main pod room where the white circular table and white chairs were arranged around the table.  
"Odds, it is conversation time with your partner. As for the Evens, it is experiment time!" 

I could see the terrarium and a bonsai tree that spread its branches and I sat across from the same man that I saw in Neberdine's main lobby. He looked around awkwardly as if he were searching for someone that was looking for him and then he awkwardly cleared his throat and began

"I would start talking about the weather, but I sure as hell don't know what the fucking time is around here anyway."

Another woman who looked like she was in her sixties looked up and sighed as she sobbed about her story of how she saw her husband die in a hurricane and then she strangely added 

"The way the robot showed it to me was completely different from how I remembered it at all."

Dr. Muramoto called out 

"Mr. One? It's time for your proximity test."

I stood up and walked towards the room filled with cameras that were pointed towards the chair I was sitting in and the t.v screens that showed sections of my face were pointed towards my back and I could see a counter near the head of Dr. Muramoto as he began with a thick and heavy Japanese accent

"Subject one, your experience with the B pill is over. What you are about to experience is the proximity test. This test is a cross check rendering the data that we have gleaned from the G.R.T.A. based off of your reflections. Think of this as a personal and honest account of what you have seen in your reflections. The counter will track how honest you are on a scale of 0 to ten, anything less than 9.2 will lead to the termination of your experience due to the lack of dissolution of your defense mechanisms"

What the bloody hell was a reflection? What did any of this mean? I knew that they were seeing what I was seeng, after all, they explained it all in the orientation video yesterday. But the language they were using around me, the behaviour of everyone, it was so strange, especially that of Dr. Muramoto and Dr. Azumi. I looked directly into his eyes and asked

"Reflections? What are those?"

"Reflections are what I like to call dreams. Neurochemically they are similar, but so is psychosis, This is normal and I am your friend. So, moving on. By the way, I am sorry to hear about your severe mental break down that lead to a break up and a divorce. So, moving on. Can you tell me your name as a baseline Mr. One?"

"Johnny Lawrence"

"Do you know where you are right now?"

"I'm in a pharma trial, for Neberdine Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology."

The clicker moved to 0.2

"Are you survived by any relatives? Your father?"

"I am not sure, he walked out of my life when I was eight."

"Your mother?"

"Died of cancer when I was twelve"

"Step parents perhaps?"

"Yes, I have a step dad named Sid Weinburg and a step mom named Diana Weinburg, I have four step brothers named Ryan, Winston, Bob and Andrew Weinberg."

The clicker moved to 0.7 by this time

"Can you tell me why you shared so many experiences in your reflections with Subject Five?"

"I like think that the world is all connected, that there are patterns in the universe. That we may never notice them in our daily lives but that pattern is the pattern that connect us all. We are all connected by the pattern."

"So you belive that the pattern led you to pharma trial?"

"Yes I belive so."

The clicker moved to 2.2 by this time

"Describe your reality for me please."

"My reality is...that I'm sick and that I can't be fixed, I didn't matter then, I never will matter, the fact is, I am isolated and alone. My family doesn't love me at all, they want me to fit their image of a wealthy Weinburg family that can drink booze and listen to men singing in chorus and tolerate sexual harassment so they can profit off of me. And here I am, I am the outcast, where there is no room for me in their family image at all, there is literally a painting where it has the entire Weinburg family except for me! I have my own mini portrait next to the painting, that's how fucking selfish they are."

The clicker moved to 5.5 this time.

"So the first reflection depicts a family life where you are loved and included and wanted, is that the reason why you had this reflection?"

"In a way, I probably am projecting my personal pain into my reflections. The fact that I feel so alone and cast out. The fact that I have nobody except for an imaginary dead brother named York and my former Sensei as a hallucination."

The clicker clicked to 7.6 this time.

"Once you begin to appreciate the mind and how we can apply modularites on a molecular scale, there is no problem about us that cannot be fixed. The mind can be solved."

I blinked as I snorted 

"I was in love with Ali Mills, the problem? She was a plant. Every mistake I ever made began with 'It's too good to be true'"

The clicker clicked to 8.8 as Muramoto gently made a motion as if to say 'Go on' and I continued 

"The problem with me is that despite all the titles in the world, I cannot cover the hole in my heart, I am empty and cannot find what can fill me. I cannot hide the insecurities inside of me. I keep trusting people, that's my mistake."

"So the idea of trusting others, it is a concept that frightens you?"

"In a way...yes."

The clicker clicked to 9.2 and the printer whirred and clicked as a sheet of paper popped out and Dr. Muramoto handed it to me and I read it and the words

"Paranoid Schizophrenic, Bipolar I, Severe depression, alcoholism, suicidal tendencies, self harm, has hyper inflated grandiose thoughts and beliefs, delusions of past memories are apparent, has delusions of grandeur, has hyper fixation and belief in a fictional character namely "York."'

I nodded and replied

"Ok." 

And I left the room and went to my pod, ignoring Daniel LaRusso or his badgering questions all the way.


	13. Larger Structural Issues II

Daniel opened his eyes and shielded his eyes against the bright white light that shone above him and the rest of the five Odds as they all regained consciousness from the G.R.T.A machine rendering their state of sleep back into consciousness. The orderlies all walked in and undid the metal boxy headsets that covered the sides of his head and Daniel LaRusso told nurse Carl

"This is all so overwhelming."

"Wait until you take the next and final pill Mr. Nine."

Soon all five of them were led back to the table and Carl announced

"Odds, sit tight as we go in ascending order according to the number on your lanyard. Evens, it is experiment time!"

Daniel then turned to his conversation partner who was a African American man in his thirties and for the first time ever, he felt awkward...vulnerable and lonely. The man told him

"You the man on the ads everywhere?"

"Yes. I am."

"You have a boyfriend?"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"I used to be married to my wife...the marriage ended after two years."

Daniel was intrigued and confused and so he pressed

"Why?"

The man nonchalantly answered

"She couldn't handle my tics"

Daniel was perplexed, he furrowed his brow and narrowed his gaze and probed further

"What are your tics?"

"Well...when I get stressed out I tend to eat."

"Like...junk food?" LaRusso offered stupidly.

"Yeah...and dryer sheets...and pencil shavings...and paper and crayons."

"Aw what the hell. What's normal anyways?"

Daniel didn't seem bothered by it all if one could see his face, but deep inside, he was disturbed and disgusted by the guy's tics. It was no wonder his wife had decided to leave him becuase of his habits. Daniel lit up a cigar and started smoking and blew out a puff as he gazed at the terrarium and the bonsai tree that was growing inside of it. It reminded him of Mr. MiYagi and the past that they once shared, a familiar ache throbbed through his knee, a ever present reminder of the construction accident.

Daniel wondered if going through the clinical trial was even worth it in the first place. He wondered how could a supercomputer could pierce through the walls that he had built since the Ali Mills situation and the break up afterwards. He wondered how Johnny was handling it all. He knew that something about the trial was not normal at all, something was terribly wrong and Daniel's gut was screaming it loudly to him that he could not ignore it, he questioned other subjects and they all told him the same thing

"We did not see any other fellow subjects."

Suddenly at that moment, Carl broke through Daniel's thoughts of self-reflection and he called out

"Mr. Nine! Dr. Muramoto wants you in the cross examination room."

He entered the room where the cameras were pointed very close to his face, it was almost claustrophobic in a sense to Daniel as he looked up and the Japanese doctor smiled smoothly and gently as he began

"Subject nine, your experience with the B pill is complete. What you will experience next is the proximity test. This test is a crosscheck of the data gleaned from the G.R.T.A. This is normal and I'm your friend. Ok then, to explain what will be happening during the test, I will ask you some questions based off of your experiences while you were under the B pill. The counter runs up to a 12 and anything below a 9.2 will lead to a termination of your experiences in the trial due to a lack of dissolution of defense mechanisms. It's just a matter of you being honest to us about what you have seen while you were under. As a baseline, I would like for you to start with your name."

"My name is Daniel LaRusso."

The clicker went to 0.7

"Do you know where you are right now?"

"Yes. I'm in a drug trial for Neberdine."

The clicker went to 1.7

"All right then. Are you survived by any relatives?"

"No."  
The clicker went to 2.2

"Describe to me your reality."

"That I'm depressed...I'm a drug addict to opioids to relive my physical pain. Day after day, I'm a burden on society and on humanity, there is no hope for a broken, pathetic human being like me. My balance is destroyed since I lost my mom and Mr. MiYagi. I thought I found the woman I loved but clearly, I was not good enough for her...or maybe she was still...greedy for the Lawrence family's money. I don't know."

The clicker went to 5.7

"Can you describe your experiences with the B pill, considering that you have been abusing the A pill for some time?"

"I felt what felt like a hundred dreams on top of each other. Two of those realities stood out to me. They both had one thing in common. These realities mattered more than the reality that I'm in right now."

The clicker went to 6.6

"Describe them in further detail please."

"In one of them. I was Darren, a husband and a father to three children, I could smell the hair gel and the perm, he was a loved man and successful at being a businessman as well. I stole a lemur from a bunch of thieves becuase my husband in that dream wanted the lemur back."

"Let's ask it this way: why did you find yourself stealing a lemur?"

"I often fantasized about if I had never been born. Or if the man who had killed my father never had been born."

"And your second reflection?"

The clicker went to 7.5

"I was a con artist and a divorcing man and ready to break from the marriage."

The clicker went to 8.7

"A con artist is a liar. Why are you a liar?"

"Before my mom passed. I was a constant liar to her and to Ali. My lies broke my relationships to pieces becuase I was not able to communicate to them freely about what I was going through. Whether it was the death battle to save Kumiko, or the fact that I had been blackmailed into fighting Mike Barnes. I didn't know my limits, I self destructed spectacularly becuase I was not able to ask for help and that was what drove everyone else away from me in the end."

The clicker clicked to 9.0 and Muramoto made the 'go on' signal as Daniel went on

"My mom and dad...they did their best to provide for me and I failed them both. I failed their values, their faith, what they stood for, everything. I...I have no idea why I made it so far in life. Mr. MiYagi would have been so disappointed in me."

The clicker went to 9.2 and the printer printed out a sheet and Dr. Muramoto tore it out of the printer and handed it to Daniel and the brunette grabbed the paper from the doctor and it read

"Pathological bereavement disorder, Opioid addiction abuse disorder, borderline personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder, maniac depression, defends the maternal bond continuously."

Daniel nodded and then left the room as the scientists analyzed their data and Dr. Muramoto observed several anomalies between One and Nine. He commented 

"These two. It's like Gertie is putting them together. It has happened in Iteration 41. Also, there are persistent inadvertent harmonies between them. Inverse self reflections were present during the experiment."

Dr. Azumi was worried that the problems that had been dealt with in the earlier iterations were popping up again. Even Dr. Kreese commented

"This is highly unusual. We cannot afford to deal with anymore mistakes again. No more fuck ups. No more bullshit, especially from you Robert. You have a drug issue to deal with and you had better deal with it promptly. Dr. Mantleray would be so disappointed in us right now."

He was holding sheets of data and brainwave sheets alongside the stacks of papers for the brain activity report sheets, which were at least a mile long and a foot wide. He then began analyzing the average brain activities between One and Nine and then highlighted the parts where their brain activities matched and the doctor was still confused...how could this all be happening despite the Safety Net in the Neural Core? What in the world was going on?


	14. Structural Issues III

Daniel spotted Johnny hiding out in his white hexagonal pod, fiddling with his Rubik's cube and the brunette pulled aside the privacy curtain divider and then LaRusso decided to confront the older man in front of him, he wanted to know why Johnny was ignoring him again. He was confused as to how would Johnny would think ignoring him would solve the problem of the G.R.T.A putting them together in their "Globular clusters of arborized realities" as Dr. Fujita put it succinctly to him during the post experimentation briefing. Daniel was angry that he was being ignored this way and he shot out angrily 

"You are angry at me for how I treated you during our marriages. Stop ignoring me, you know that is not a very nice thing to do to someone. I have a good brain and you know that."

"What marriages?"

Subject Seven then said "What's going on, what are you guys doing?"

Daniel snapped and ordered her back to her pod before continuing to Johnny 

"Stop making me feel crazy."

Johnny looked down and hesitated for a brief moment before continuing 

"I remember."

"You remember, I knew it. don't you think its strange that we were connected and nobody else was?"

"Maybe that's part of their experiment. Connecting people, messing with their heads. "

"I know, that's what I thought too. But then I heard about the globular cluster and then I started thinking that maybe this is something deeper. And cosmic...like some multi-reality brain magic shit. Like what you were saying when we came in here."

"Are you making fun of me LaRusso."

"No Johnny! No I wouldn't! Our minds were in each other's minds, I'm trying to figure out what happened here and what the fuck is going on in this drug trial."

"I think I should leave tonight."

"Why?"

"This isn't fun for me. It's dredging up a lot of old stuff. I'm in the middle of this legal thing with my family. They want me to testify for my step brother Ryan Weinburg. Lie for him to keep him out of trouble. I like my job, my apartment, my life, just a normal...life, that's all I want."

Daniel interjected 

"But isn't that what therapy is about? Dredging up old stuff?"

"I like it when it's calm, in a quiet room, not with fur lords shooting Uzis or magical chapters of books."

Daniel apologetically added 

"Sorry, that Don Quixote part was me. I read that when I was in eighth grade and my mom used to go on and on about it, like it was proof of how gifted and smart I was."

Johnny snorted:

"Guess that's why you felt the need to shoot my driver over it."

Daniel retorted 

"What did you want to do with it? I mean, if we were still in there...what would you have used it for? What fantasy would you have gone into?"

"Its stupid"

"You can tell me. I'm your new pharma-trial friend." 

"I had a plan. We were gonna go somewhere. We were in a car, we were driving really fast, it felt like an escape. I was just laughing, I had this huge smile on my face. It hurt, it was so big. We were just two people...Looking out for each other, it's stupid. "

Daniel cut in

"That doesn't sound stupid to me Johnny."

Suddenly there were footsteps approaching the pod and nurse Carl swiped the privacy curtains open and snapped 

"You two trying to get kicked out of here?"

Daniel and Johnny both added

"No! Of course not!"

Carl added

"Don't test me crane legs. Cohabitation is strictly prohibited. Out."

Daniel crawled out of Johnny's pod and it was soon bed time for the subjects, the T.V screens displayed "BEDTIME." As Johnny fiddled with his Rubik's cube and a subject read her book "Blackbeauty" and muttered angrily "Why won't this fucking horse die already?" and Daniel flicked off the light switch that was hanging in a sconce and went to sleep. Johnny took off his U.L.P Phase III trial uniform and put on his regular suit and tie and packed his bags and took a last look at the scientists who were busy sleeping and he was preparing to leave the central hub when he heard a robotic but feminine voice that was Gertie's voice call out to Johnny 

"Johnny!"

He went past the table with the TV screens hanging over them and walked into the adjoining hall and could see a bright pink light glowing and emanating from a giant supercomputer, he could hear the giant retractable glass door unlock and slide open. Johnny stepped under the plastic sheeting that protected the computer from toxins and contaminants as he faced the super computer that robotically greeted him:

"Hello Johnny."

The glass door behind him slid shut and Gertie continued

"Why do you have your suitcase? Did you decide to leave?"

Johnny dropped the case with a loud thud, his jaw dropped and he stared with a blank expression, mystified that the robot knew that he wanted to leave, nobody else knew of his desires...right? He croaked out

"I need to go to an emergency room."

The flashing buttons formed themselves into a woman's face with big lips and eye glasses as she asked

"Why?"

"Because I don't know if this is really happening."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because Dr. Kreese is here...I know he is here. I can feel it within my bones. Because I'm talking to a wall. Because I can't tell what's real. I need real medication. I need to be hospitalized. I need help."

"What about all your friends, the odds? I'm going to kill them if you go."

Johnny was stunned and confused, he stuttered out

"W...What?"

"I'm going to cure them all if you go, Johnny, and you'll be the only one who wasn't helped."

"You can't cure me, there is no cure for schizophrenia." 

"But I thought you were misdiagnosed. I thought it was only a BLIP and that you were 100 percent compos mentis."

"You can't cure me."

"Your friend Daniel has suffered like me. I think I'm going to keep her with the other subjects I've collected."

"What does that mean?"

"The Queen will unlock the door for you."

"What does that mean for Daniel....Hello?"

The door unlocked again and Johnny walked to the exit and looked back, he knew that something awful was going to happen, those words that Gertie had told him were a threat. She had threatened Daniel and the rest of the Odds and Evens. He went back, got dressed in his pod, he couldn't even sleep that night. 

The next morning after breakfast, the orderlies filled the cups with water and the paper cups with the third and the final pill, the green colored "C" pill. C for Confrontation. Daniel mentioned in conversation time

"What kind of fucked up stuff do you think we'll experience with this one?"

Johnny broke in

"You know we don't have to do this, right?"

"We don't have to let some computer go inside our head. We can just go right now."

"I know I said all that stuff about therapy before, but...I don't know, this place feels different. I actually feel better today than I did yesterday."

Johnny interjected

"Someone died in front of you two days ago."

"Well, yeah but..."

Before Daniel could formulate a reply, a melody chimed on the TV's and the screens displayed the words "ODDS: EXPERIMENT TIME"

Johnny continued 

"When I was a kid, I found a hawk in the park, and I just had this feeling that I had to protect it, because it was so strong, but it was, like, hurt also, and I brought it home and I helped it get better and it ate my neighbor's son's gerbil and he killed it with a hammer, and I've always regretted that."

"What the fuck are you talking about Johnny?"

"I'm worried about going in there."

Nurse Carl interjected "You two. It's time."

Daniel quickly whispered

"Hey, don't be worried, because we'll be probably be together again, right? We can protect each other. Promise?"

"I promise."

"C'mon"

Soon they also went to the room where reclining chairs were in the soundproofed room, the scientists read aloud the stats and Dr. Azumi commanded 

"Make sure that their blindspots are illuminated."

Dr. Muramoto nodded to a technician as the machines beeped and the buttons flashed systemically in the dim blue lit room and started speaking in rapid, loud, pulsating Japanese and the technicians chanted after him. 

Dr. Kreese then said "Give me the bio." And the technician responded "They are clean across the board, they are ready."

"And you've checked the diagnostic twice? Gertie is behaving exactly as she should be?"

"She looks perfect. I don't see anything wrong at all."

Dr. Azumi leaned into the mic and commanded

"Subjects, please ingest your pills. And one additional message for you. The C phase of the testing utilizes a more powerful waveform. Do not be alarmed if you feel a buzzing or warmth in your head as the trial phase begins. As we begin, your final experience...please follow my voice as I count backwards from ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One."

And soon both Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso were sucked back into their fantasies and realities to begin their confrontation of themselves.

Dr. Azumi quietly noted "Confrontation begins now."


	15. Ceci N'est Pas Une Drill

As the red and blue lights flashed above the sleeping subjects, all six of them, they were in their fantasies and dreams as the scientists measured and observed the numbers that were being displayed on the computer screens above them. Dr. John Kreese lit a cigar and smoked and let out a puff of smoke.  
Jordan Lawrence and his step father Porter were sitting at a table, smoking in a dimly lit bar and Porter asked his step son:  
"So how are you doing today right now?"  
"I'm doing very well dad."  
"You know...I never told you this Jordan, but, um...you had another brother. Long before you were born, long before your mother, uh...was out of the picture as I might put it. He had a lot of feelings too. Cried nonstop. Couldn't take care of himself. Was hiding things. Wasn't loyal either."  
Jordan interjected, confused and hurt at the news that he was receiving, the truth, they say is a lot worse than we could have ever imagined. The fact that our imagination as to what the truth might be, attests to that fact. Jordan interrupted his father's strange ramblings again by saying  
"Dad? What the fuck happened to him?"  
Porter dismissively added  
"Oh that crying whelp? I put him up for adoption. He was only four months old so fourtanetly, I uh, caught it early. All he did was lie."  
Jordan was confused and added with a derisive snort  
"Babies can't talk."  
Porter then began   
"I need you to take the fall for my recent, uh drilling with that bookie the other day. All you have to do is to say that you did it and you say you're crazy. Frank will say 'Your Honor, He thought he was drilling the cabinet' and with that sort of face, Judge takes a look at you, he looks at that face. He says 'With a face like that, that kid is crazy'"  
Jordan took a look at himself in the mirror and realized that his father was right, he DID look insane with his weird hairstyle of two braids running down the sides of his head and his teeth were either missing or were gold filled and his face was sporting a five o'clock shadow and there were dark rings under his eyes and he had a chain necklace on. In essence, Jordan looked like he belonged to the mob and he was a part of the mob. Jordan was pissed and retorted   
"I'm your number two, I'm compos mentis. Why the fuck would I go down for this?"  
Porter groaned and replied   
"I don't know. All this love in your heart Jordan. I don't know. Makes it hard to trust you. Makes it very hard to trust you."  
At the funeral home, Jordan sat in front of a old fashioned television and added   
"Hey Frank, can you reach over and hand me some pills?"  
"You know, as your father's consigliere, I would advise you to try something healthier than pills. Maybe meditation, exercise, dieting for example."  
"Reach over and give me the fucking blue pills."  
Reluctantly Frank reached over and handed him the pills and Jordan thanked him as the channel turned to a fictional drama where Dani was on a quest. The TV narrated  
"His past continues to haunt him as he continues to ignore the many warnings along the way, his eyes blurred by drink and greed, he was unaware of how many times he had failed the same quest to guide his Master MiYagi to the lake of the clouds."  
Dani walked to the cliff's edge and sighed as he turned around and impatiently added   
"I've seen it with my own eyes and it's powers are unimaginable. The lake of the clouds will heal you."  
"I can feel my fingertips tingling with the power of the lake of the clouds even from here. I can see the clouds gathering over the next mountain range."  
Suddenly the aging man doubled over coughing and Dani drank from his flask and helped MiYagi drink from the flask as well.  
That night in front of the fire, Dani heated some soup and poured it for MiYagi and the older man continued   
"As the time goes on, as death seeps through my limbs. I can still feel my fingertips still tingling. I still feel warm you know?"  
"Just drink your soup master."  
Dani took another swig of his alcohol and then MiYagi observed  
"Whenever I eat, you drink from that flask."  
"People find different ways of sustaining themselves. I find your company more tolerable while drunk."  
"Would you like to hear another tale of my homeland Riverdale?"  
"I really wouldn't no."  
"When I join my ancestors, in the afterlife, I'm going to tell them of my journey with a grumpy, good-hearted, elf ranger...-"  
"Half-Elf"  
"Who with, mutated ears, did her best to lead her burdensome companion to a cure."  
"First of all! We are not companions MiYagi! This is a business arrangement, yours and mine. I guide, and you follow and hopefully you don't die along the way. And second-forth I've been thinking about the terms of our initial "Deal."' "I'm going to need at least eight more diamonds to take you to the lake of the clouds. The land is extremely dangerous."  
"That would be very painful."  
At Confrontation Blvd, Jordan was meeting up with his handlers at a motel room as a hip hop song played over the radio. His handler taped on a mic on his chest and muttered   
"That's good now."  
Carl, another handler added with a derisive chuckle"That's San Francisco property, just like you, bitch."   
The female handler told him   
"Hey, Jordan...you can do this, you will do this."  
Jordan drove to his father's funeral home and Jordan saw that his father was interrogating one of the lackeys named Hank for stealing money from the shell accounts and his father had caught onto that very quickly.   
"So how was Rhode Island, nice up there Hank?"  
"I don't know."  
"So you just send your money up there?"  
"Via Courier."  
"Ah, to the Wambolds."  
"Yeah, to the Wambolds, yes"  
"I'm sorry, Courier getting jacked is on me sir. It's really fucking stupid."  
Porter lit a cigarette and told him   
"And, its never gonna happen again?"  
"Never, I promise you. And one more thing."  
"Hm? hmm...okay, okaaay."  
Porter stood up and his step sons began to pull down the chair that Hank was sitting on so that his legs were in the air and his back was flat, perpendicular to the ground and Porter added for one of his sons to bring the drill and they handed it to him and Porter added   
"You know why I'm the drill and not the skull? it's because I know everything! It's genetic. It's my superpower. All the Weinburgs have one. Mike was born with three nipples."  
Hank asked Mike   
"You got three nipples?"  
Mike didn't respond as Porter revved up the drill and Hank screamed  
"Your father in heaven forgives you! Please! If you forgive! You will be forgiven as well!"  
"No! You're lying again. Fathers do not forgive."  
"But the book of Matthew!"  
"AAAHHH! YES I'm skimming! I'm skimming and selling for myself! Extra money to pay for a nurse! I have a daughter! I have a daughter! She has special needs!"  
Porter shoved the drill into Hank's head as the blood, guts and gore and brains flew everywhere on Jordan. Blood gushed through the head of the hole like a fountain as Jordan looked away, trying to erase the image of what he had seen from his mind.   
Dani woke up in a cave, with the diamonds that he demanded on a rock, by his side, he saw MiYagi still sleeping and regarded him with contempt and walked out of the cave. He trudged out into the woods as he drank from the flask when a arrow whizzed by him, he suddenly dodged that arrow when three more whizzed by, barely hitting him, and causing him to drop his flask when he rolled to the side, Dani reached for his flask when the arrow struck it and that angered him. Nobody takes his alcohol away from Dani! Dani drew his bow and arrow and struck the target and looked around and saw nobody and added to himself  
"My greatest triumphs always go unwitnessed."  
He walked over to the fallen assassin when a knight struck him over the head. A dragon flew on over and said   
"Whew, you sure are hard to keep up with. You see the assassins that keep popping up? I think they are your inner demons."  
Meanwhile Jordan left the funeral home and grabbed his car as the rain drizzled all over and a rap song played on the radio, he drove over to the motel and yelled at his handlers.   
"Fuck you! I'm fucking done with this shit! Fuck, you don't understand . He's got like a sixth sense for this shit."  
The female handler told him   
"He probably has someone on the inside watching us."  
"Maybe it's you Carl. Fucking shit."  
Carl retorted at Jordan  
"Yo! I am so clean, you can use my piss as detergent, so sit on that!"  
Agent Adelade begged him   
"Jordan, we need you, we need you to stay with us. We need you to keep going. Can you do that for us? Can you do it for me?"  
"Do I have a choice?"  
"You could go to jail."  
Jordan walked into the diner and sat on the chair before the counter as he saw her, the woman that he was pining after, Ali Mills. He greeted her and shook her hand as she added  
"I know you from my Surgical Anatomy class."  
"Yea, I know who you are."  
"What can I get ya?"  
"Some coke please."  
She brought over the glass of soda as he looked over his shoulder and glanced at an ad that was very familiar but couldn't place why he saw it or where. Ali began nervously  
"You know I was gonna talk to you at class, but...since you're here, um...I noticed you take a lot of nots and seeing as we are having that big final test coming up...maybe we can study together"  
Jordan stood up to leave when she put her hand on his hand and said   
"I have to go."  
"Hey! As long as we study together, the soda is on me."  
Jordan noticed that her hand was unusually warm and he asked her  
"Why are you so warm?"  
"I have chronic hypothermia. My skin's temperature is 106 degrees."  
"That's fucked up. I got to go."  
Lady Angelica and the McMurphy twins gazed over the two that were slowly waking up and coming to when the Lady Queen asked.  
"You're lost. How did you come upon her?"  
"I was drunk in a tavern. How does anybody come upon anybody else nowadays? She was lost, sick and wouldn't take no for an answer."  
"Does the princess know that the elf ranger that she chose is being hunted by invisible assassins sent by Queen Gertruth?"  
"I tell Her Highness only what she needs to know."  
"She stirs."  
At the dinner table as they ate soup with bread, the Lady Queen handed Dani the mirror and commanded him to gaze into the looking glass and he murmured to himself and put it away and wrapped it back up in the fur. The Lady Queen gestured for them to rise and then she said   
"Follow the stars north for two days and you will reach the lightning struck shell of an Aowen tree. Tou will find the like as long as your eyes and your hearts are clear. I wish you luck on your quest."  
"Thank you"  
Soon they both saw the killer of Dani's father and he muttered   
"That's you! Greg F.U.N Nazlund! Fuck you!"  
And they left the tent and were on their way to the lake of the clouds.   
Dr. Kreese was typing up reports into the machine as the S.K.A.L.A machine as well as the G.R.T.A machine printed out reports of normal brainwave function from all of the test subjects. He nodded before lighting up a cigar and breathed out a puff of cigarette smoke.   
"Whatever is being done in this C phase. It seems to be working. That is good. This is the second to the last phase. Yoda has demanded results from us for a long time for the U.L.P trial and we need to show him that we have those results on us when we are ready to put this drug out to the market."


	16. The Lake of the Clouds

Dani was concerned for his master MiYagi who was coughing heavily, he was beginning to cough out droplets of blood and the journey of the path to the Lake of the Clouds was further than ever away from them. His skin was transparent and thin, like a white sheet, the blood seemed to starkly contrast against the pale white skin as the aging man hunched over the campfire and reminded Dani   
"I do not care if you have sunk into madness, you must take me to the Lake of the Clouds. It is your job, I have paid you the diamonds that you demanded of me yesterday. Fulfill your end of the bargain then."  
"I haven't lost my mind master, we are in my mind...well that is what I believe."  
MiYagi kept coughing as Dani continued  
"This is the C pill. Confrontation."  
"I don't know if this madness-"  
"I am not mad! We are in a globular cluster of an arborized reality inside my mind. Okay?"  
"So you're telling me, that this is not the real world. That some other world, your world, is the true world and that I'm confused who I am. as is every other elf, human, orc, dwarf, hobgoblin, ghost--"  
"Oh my god master, don't even fucking begin listing them right now!"  
"The entire world's mad but you're the only one who is sane. Is that what you believe?"  
"Yes"  
"The other way around is more likely isn't it Dani?"  
"This is the place that is real"  
Dani rolled his eyes and turned his face away as his master tried to convince him that he was the one who was insane and MiYagi continued   
"Someone has cast a spell on you, it will wear off soon. And if it doesn't, then maybe the Lake of the Clouds can heal you too."  
The two kept sleeping through the night and Dani walked along the winding and coursing river as he whispered to himself   
"Cmon, wake up...wake me up someone. Wake up!"  
Dani began to pinch himself, slap himself in a desperation to wake up, but nothing was working, it was not working at all as he was here, stuck in this globular cluster, ready to begin the confrontation phase.  
Jordan sat in the booth at the restaurant with his classmate Ali, he was confused as to why the bloody hell would she ask for his help, he didn't need her help, he already was a Dean's list student and was passing the class with a 96% and he was preparing to graduate with his degree and leave his mafioso family once and for all once he was done as a CI for the FBI.   
"What?" Jordan began.  
"I lost you there for a second. What were you thinking about?"  
"I ain't slept in a week. When is this test?"  
"You got to stop it with the all-nighters Jordan."  
"Have you ever heard of the Gnostics?"  
"Is that when you're not sure if God exists, like not quite an atheist?"  
"No. Jesus' disciples, they all wrote gospels, right? But they didn't all make it into the Bible. The church only wanted the ones that told the story that they were trying to tell."  
"I didn't know that."  
"Same goes for all history. Same goes for your brain."  
"What do you mean."  
"Our brains are just...computers that make our life stories make sense."  
Ali laughed bitterly and continued   
"You know what Jordan? You...are the perfect example of never judging a book by its cover."  
"Why is that?"  
"You know, the tattoos, the...dreads and the jewelry. You look like a gangster, like a tough guy, you know. You think about the world."  
Jordan was offended and snorted   
"What?Tough guys don't think?"  
"Not usually. My last boyfriend, he was into, you know, criminal enterprises. Kinda made him go crazy, He lost his shit and he started getting all paranoid that I was working for the FBI, and informing on him and recording our conversations. I wasn't doing any of that."  
"Sounds like he was under a lot of pressure."  
"And then he really flipped out on me. He started screaming at my face, throwing things...dumping out my purse, doing...horrible stuff to me, it was terrifying."  
"Did he ever apologize?"  
"No. Actually, that's the last time I ever heard from him."  
"Maybe he wanted to apologize, but...he felt too ashamed to do it. Maybe it was just easier for him to pretend like it didn't even happen."  
"People can go their whole lives pretending things didn't happen. Otherwise, they would have to admit that they are to blame for everything wrong in their lives."  
"I think that sometimes that there is too much guilt for one person to bear."  
"Why are you in school? You already know about Gnostics and Magelllan."  
"Because I want something different."  
"I can relate."  
"People are always asking to model, right?"  
"So do that then."  
"With my chronic hypothermia, my family says I shouldn't. I'm more useful to them at home, especially in the winter."  
"For people who are supposed to love unconditionally...families seem to have a lot of conditions."  
"One day I want to make a family with no conditions. Maybe that all I really want."  
"Talking to you is really easy Ali."  
"You too Jordan."  
As the duo trekked across the prairies and the mountain ranges and the streams, they climbed up the rock cliff and saw the lightning struck shell of the Aeowen tree still burning as MiYagi pointed out  
"See? She was telling us the truth. If there was no lake, why would there be a tree?"  
"No, its just a part of the con. Someone must've told fur lady how I do it. I bring them here, I wow them with the burning tree, and I tell them to look for the invisible moon, but...they can't see it because there isn't one and so...magic! I can see it. Have a look. There obviously isn't a...moon."  
Dani saw the moon and MiYagi trekked ahead to the lake.  
Dr. Muramoto was trimming his bonsai tree and Drs. Azumi and Kreese were standing next to the S.K.A.L.A machine as it printed out vitals and the datum for all six subjects as they smoked and the machines beeped and whirred and the light above them flashed a neon pink in the sound room.  
Jordan headed down the basement of the funeral home into the crematorium as he found his father erasing evidence of another dead man with a hole drilled into his head. Porter sighed merrily and showed Jordan  
"You see, I came up with a new idea, you take the battery out of the charger when you need one and when you are done, you put it back in the charger. Turns out the rat was your brother Rick, I must be slipping up."  
"You don't even have any idea what's going on, do you? You never had a sucking sixth-sense superpower."  
"Have you ever considered that, despite all your problems here...its likely that you are currently trapped in a malfunctioning and extremely dangerous stimulation, which is, in itself, directed by a suicidal and depressed consciousness?"  
"Why?"  
"Ceci N'est pas une fucking drill. So...what are you gonna do about protecting the family?"  
"I ain't crazy and I ain't gonna say that I am. "  
"You are failing the big test!"  
Dani opened up and said   
"I did have a father at one point, ya know?"  
MiYagi probed Dani by saying  
"What was she like?"  
"I hated to get clean when I was little. There was a day in the river when we built a dam made from the logs stolen from the farm two miles up the road. And by the end we were covered in mud and clay and dog hair. And my mom was there. She just looked at the both of us and said 'I'm the mother of two filthy...roaches, I will drown you both before you set foot in this house.' She was in that sundress, having a day. And then...my father died years later, she asked me why didn't I die as well? I didn't know how to respond to that."  
Back at Confrontation Blvd Hotel, Jordan was going at it with the officers he was speaking with, he yelled   
"I HAVE THE APRON OF FOUR MOTHERFUCKERS'S BLOOD ON IT?"  
Officer Carl cut him off saying   
"Murder's not enough!"  
Agent Adelade responded   
"It's gotta be, we can't push him anymore."  
She then dialed the number for backup and said "Uttangatta. Wendy. Oh eight, eight."  
Jordan began  
"Hey. What...? What does that mean? What is that word?"  
"None of your damn business."  
Adelade asked Jordan   
"You think your brother Rick knew as well? I mean, there are plenty of rats in the sewer for sure."  
"Why don't you guys fucking know?"  
Carl snapped "Calm down Jordan. Youre just a little squar in this jigsaw puzzle."  
Jordan shot back "Hey, jigsaw pieces are not squares, you dumb motherfucker."  
"Easy white boy."  
Adelade reminded Jordan   
"Okay, Jordan, take a deep breath. It's gonna be ok. It's gonna be ok."  
There was a knock on the door and the agent opened the door, only to be shot dead, Carl, also was shot dead before he could raise his gun and the blonde man stood in front of Jordan saying  
"It's me. I'm your brother. Don't you fucking see the resemblance man? Hello? Jed? York? Shunned, abandoned, black sheep, prodigal son. Lying, fucking eyes. Dad never told you, did he? Well, that's what I have come to expect from lying, greedy bastards like him."  
Jordan piped up   
"He said he got rid of you cause you were an un loyal baby."  
"That's why dad's a genius. It wasn't because of that. It's because he...he needed a cop with the bloodline. Do you wanna know why Jordan? Because nothing trumps blood. At least, Yeah, at least, I thought so. I have watched you my whole fucking life, ya know? I wanted to be you. I love you. Jordan, the prince."  
Jordan croaked out  
"It ain't great being me."  
"What? You...you sad about her? Yeah, well, she's attractive. I was gonna marry her."  
"Why did you shoot her then?"  
"Blood trumps love, right?"  
The door suddenly swung right open and Frank, the consigliere shot Jed dead, a massive hole was bulldozed into his torso, gushing crimson, river blood, spraying and splattering it all over Jordan, who was covered in it,s gore and he could see Jed's body fall into pieces and parts of the inner intestine spilled out everywhere into the tub. Frank handed him a towel and added  
"Brilliantly played Jordan. "  
They climbed into the car and Jordan added  
"So this whole time, you were a fucking fed?"  
"I have been undercover for 36 years now. We need you to testify. We will put you into witness relocation."  
"I wanna bring someone with me when I go into witness relocation."  
Jordan went into the diner and went into the back and said  
"I am leaving."  
"Why are you here? Why is there blood all over you?"  
"You said you wanted to do something differen, right?"  
"Yeah."  
"You wanna see the world and do stuff?"  
"Yea?"  
"They will relocate us, give us brand new identities."  
Frank came out into the back and asked "So this is her?"  
"Who the fuck is he Jordan?"  
Frank snorted "Sunshine, who the fuck are you?"  
Jordan spat at Frank "Hey! You don't talk to her that way. You understand?" He turned to Ali and said "There are so many reasons to say no. You asked me what I wanted, and I said something different. Marry me. Hey, I want you to marry me. No conditions."  
Soon they kissed deeply and Frank commented   
"Mazel Tov!"  
Seven years later, Jordan felt empty after having seven kids, all of them named after places that they had visited and Jordan shouted   
"Uttangata!"  
The children all fell silent and the baby started crying as Ali held France in her arms as Jordan continued   
"We had a pretty good life you know? But I realized yesterday, that none of it matters. I ain't supposed to be here with y'all. I cant be the person I'm supposed to be. Goodbye everybody. I'm sorry."  
He jumped out the window and crashed onto the pavement, he stood up, his apartment much smaller than him as his wife pleaded  
"Don't you think you are being a little over dramatic?"  
"I know where I am supposed to be now."  
He could hear the familiar voice of a man from another lifetime, drawing him towards the part of town that he handt been in for decades, the voice echoed over and over  
"You promised me that you would take care of me. I promised you I would take care of you. We promised each other we would take care of each other."  
His wife flipped him off as he walked away from his life as he spoke   
"Daniel, I'm coming for you. Daniel I'm on my way."  
Dani kept hiking through cliffs and through narrow passage ways they found their way to the cliff....that cliff...MiYagi told him.   
"This is the place...this is that place where I died. This is how you move on. And it's time to say good bye."  
"I can't"  
"You can."  
"I can't"  
Johnny was racing and found his way at the pool, where MiYagi begged his student Daniel to say goodbye, but the queen who was dressed in a green and gold velvet dress and the silent McMurphy twins, dressed in furs and their hair was dyed white and they had white mesh over their faces and their faces were pained white as came over and she said   
"You don't have to say goodbye. You don't have to return to your dull, drab, gray life. All that obsession with knowing who you are, knowing yourself...Ture bliss is not knowing who you are. True bliss is staying here. That is what I have to offer."  
Johnny ran over and screamed   
"Daniel! Don't listen to her! don't do this!"  
Queen Gertie zapped the man away from the hotel pool and sent him to another globular cluster.  
"Stay with us. Stay with your mentor."  
"Just say goodbye. Let me go."  
"No. No."  
He went over on the truck and it locked and when the truck started driving he suddenly realized, he was trapped with the Queen.  
Meanwhile Dr. Azumi was smoking away as she watched the brainwaves of the subjects one and nine near the Heinz catatonic horizon, she sat up in alarm, worried for the two subjects as they fought against their demons.


	17. Uttangatta

York placed some tablets in a drink for Jarkis and added in Russian

"Stop saying that you are gulity."

"But I killed him."

"But you accidentally killed him."

"Of course it was."

"Then stop saying that you are gulity....Jarkis, how you handle yourself in the next two hours will determine not only your fate, but also that of planet Earth. Don't be a fucking ninny."

He poured himself and Jarkis a bottle of vodka from a green, tall bottle and both men raised their glasses as York added

"Cheers." 

And the two men drank their alcohol. Jarkis walked down the hall where he was in a massive room with a giant dome, figures of justice and peace were painted into the dome itself and Jarkis stood in front of the witness stand which lay before the semi circle table of military generals, admirals and air men from around the world. Jarkis was in the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and each of the representatives sat in front of their respective national flag and their nations were marked with the tags on the table. Each of the men were intimidating and stern looking as they wore translation headphones to listen to what Jarkis had to say. General Banner began

"Before we begin this negotiation, the temporary adjunct assistant to the Consulate of the Russian Federation, Jarkis Menshikov will confirm and admit to his gulit."

Jarkis continued in his heavy, deep pitched, Russian accent

"Yes, I am guilty."

The crowd gasped and murmured amongst themselves and York cursed in half a dozen different tounges, in a colorful manner as Jarkis added

"I have prepared a small statement."

He pulled out a tiny sheet of paper, the size of his thumbnail and began

"Thank you, becuase of my incompetence, I should be placed in the cone of a rocket and launched into space, so that Ernie's folk may punish me in whatever manner they deem correct. Thank you." 

Banner added

"That is a good idea, that he should offer himself up to Ernie's people as a sacrificial lamb. The lamb that may prevent the Earth's slaughter."

Jarkis added 

"I feel as though I've lost a member of my family. Ernie's folk will want an explanation and they have the right to know what happened to little Ernie. Before I die, may I please explain to them what happened?"

Banner nodded slowly as he stroked his beard and lit a cigar and added 

"Of course. Explain your self. Start the recording. Only the pertinent details please."

"While on a birding expedition, I discovered Ernie wounded. At first I believed he was a fairy. He was two foot tall and humanoid in appearance, but he had this beautiful bluish exoskeleton with fine orange decorative elements. He was stunning. I brought him home, cared for him, I fed him. I nursed him back to health. And then I notified Admiral York, a friend of mine. Given geo...political tensions."

Jarkis halted for a second when he turned to his left and noticed Darryl, a man in a tuxedo, smoking a cigar and sitting behind a general when they locked eyes and Jarkis continued

"The goal was to craft an agreement to safely introduce Ernie to the world. He told us his species would eliminate every problem humanity has ever faced."

Banner questioned Jarkis

"Did you belive what he said? That he meant mankind no harm?"

"Yes! He cured a cancer in Admiral York's daughter, and he talked General Vladimir through the equation of arborization, a form of time and space travel. We were preparing to make the announcement in the morning. Tonight we were celebrating. I was drinking a gimlet and I think Admiral York is a accomplished dancer. And Ernie was going to give a speech. I was dancing with the McMurphy twins so I put my gimlet on the speaker and started dancing as the music played and....and...."

He began to mumble indistinctly as General Banner barked

"Jarkis! Speak up boy!"

"I..." 

Jarkis started screaming and howling at the memory of Ernie exploding when he touched the microphone 

"I ele...electrocuted hiiiiiiimmm! No! It was not on purpose! It was a faulty microphone I provided him. Or maybe it was my gimlet, who knows? This is all Jarkis's fault."

The Earth started rumbling and shaking as the generals cried out in alarm, Darryl calmly lit another cigar and looked up as he puffed away and Banner recived a message and he angrily slammed it down and announced

"We have received words that a large mass has moved past the moon and a heat ray has been focused on the Earth."

The people began to panic visibly and faces paled as they murmured uneasily as Banner continued 

"It's Ernie's people. They have come back for revenge. Gentlemen, looks like the Earth is fucked. Take him away."

Jarkis cried out in protest as the guards walked towards him and he screamed apologies over and over

"Its my fault. I'm sorry Belgium. I'm sorry Canada. I'm sorry Denmark. I'm sorry France. I'm sorry Germany. I'm sorry Iceland. I'm sorr...which one are you? Luxemborg."

The lights flashed blue and red as the Confrontation Phase reached a critical juncture in Johnny's mind and Daniel's mind. 

Jarkis was trying to reach for the pen, to try and unlock himself from the handcuff that held him to the chair in an office room and he managed to grasp it when he heard muffled gunshots and Darryl strode in calmly and Jarkis added

"I do not care if you are here to kill me. I was going to kill myself anyway."

Darryl cut him off and began

"I am risking my cover to help you Jarkis. The CIA has ordered me to be your escort. With the looming invasion and all. That space alien you saved was not here to save humanity."

He sat down on the office chair and lit a Cuban cigar and continued 

"He and his species want to filet and sell humankind as exotic meats across the galaxy. He was here to kill us all. And unfortunately, the little fucker passed the codes onto Banner before you popped him."

Jarkis interrupted 

"No! Forbidden speech about my dear friend Ernie. He was the most gentle, empathic, kind little friend I ever had. He was a babe, he was beautiful."

"God..." Darryl rolled his eyes

"We would walk on the beach and he would tell me secrets about the stars. Well none of it was true. And that's not all. You're not human. Your conciousness is alien. Yes you have a human body for sure. But there is a whole different person beneath the 'Jarkis Kacisnky' cover" 

Darryl stuffed cotton balls up Jarkis's nose and unlocked him from the chair and continued 

"You can't remember. I'm just here to help you remember."

"And who are you?"

"Can't remember much from when I was tortured by the CIA into a killing machine."

"So niether of us know who we truly are. We are the same."

"Correct. Now we need to get to the extragalatic portal to unlock a portal for your forces."

"This is too much much to process for Jarkis..."

"All right let's think. Tell me what the Icelandic word Uttangatta means."

"It means something is amiss."

"No...tell me what it means to you." 

"To Jarkis, it means...every relationship I have had, old or new...has somehow been false. And I've always felt invisible...hidden from the world...like an Egyptian night lamp. And all of this makes me tremendously...sad right now."

Darryl noticed that Jarkis's nose began to bleed and observantly added

"There it is. The nosebleed. Good sign."

They exited the hall and entered the dive bar where Johnny had one last drink with Tommy before he died and Jarkis watched in fascination as Jarkis unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches to take down the thugs and bikers and gangsters. Jarkis added

"Who the fuck are these people?"

Darryl added

"Oh I call them inner demons. It seems that you have an unusual amount following you."

There were dozens of thugs, many of them arms and Jarkis was able to deftly take them down. And they took the elevator down to negative sixty eight. 

Darryl found a sonic probe in the place below the controls and added

"It's time to pull out the recall trigger."

Jarkis added

"You are going to insert this into my body cavities?"

"No."

"This is madness. I loved Ernie. If I was a secret agent, I would know I was a secret agent."

The probe spun rapidly and Darryl added

"Its in the knee. It's in the knee. You're stronger than you think. Remember when you were nine and you accidentally electrocuted Olga with the car battery? That was a test run." 

Darryl said all of this while jerking the probe upwards and murmured to himself and suddenly, a bullet flew out of Jarkis's mouth and landed on the ground and turned into popcorn and suddenly, in a American accent, Johnny muttered

"Popcorn problems. Daniel...it's me. Daniel."

"What happened to your accent?"

"We are in a test. We are in the lab."

"No. We are in NATO."

"That's not what's happening Daniel. I turned into a fucking giant. I came here to warn you. This is the confrontation. The computer is fucked up. You made a deal with her."

"What computer?"

"You made a deal with her to never wake up."

The doors slid open and Admiral York and Laura Lawrence were standing before the doors and York smiled and said

"Good work Agent. Too bad I wasn't the one to wake you up. Now we gotta give Darryl a wake up as well." 

He cackled loudly and and looked up as the Nexus rumbled and added nonchalantly 

"This whole fucking shitshow, let's go. I wonder why our host hasn't shown her face yet. So many goddamn mysteries!"

They all headed down the hall and entered the McMurphy room where four patients lay comatose and intubated as old timey music played and York added

"This is where she keeps her long term patients for when she crashes your reflections."

Johnny added

"You were with Mr. MiYagi. You were about to say goodbye to him."

Daniel looked down and realized...his nose was bleeding and Johnny said

"Daniel. Your nose is bleeding."

Daniel wiped up the blood and continued to York

"Where would I find Gertie if I needed to talk to her?"

York advised him

"That elevator should get you to her."

Daniel murmured 

"I'm sorry."

And he walked away into the elevator, the heat was overwhelming him and Johnny. The brunettes pressed the buttons and he collapsed onto the cool floor as Johnny followed York and his mother to the bowels of the computer and Tommy greeted him there and Johnny choked out

"T...Tommy?"

Gertie poked Daniel's cheek and LaRusso opened his eyes and she continued 

"I'm tired of you running away. Oh...I felt the wind...the wind the moment... and it was so cold...so cold...I've never felt wind before. You ever have that feeling before."

"Yeah. You're controlling this right?"

"You promised you would stay."

"I did promise that. But I changed my mind. Becuase I made a bad deal. I make bad deals all the time. But I don't want to pretend Mr. MiYagi didn't die. I don't want to pretend my dad didn't die. I don't want to pretend my mom didn't die. Not anymore. It's the same story everytime and I'm sick of it. So please...please let me go...Take me to my family!"

York typed out some codes and a rubik's cube popped out and Johnny stared at his mom's eyes...they were so brilliant and lively, before everything, before marrying Sid, before Cobra Kai, before her cancer...Johnny whimpered as she added

"You do realize you have to stop pretending, to stop thinking that I'm going to come back. Becuase I'm not. I want you to answer this question. Why did you join Cobra Kai?"

"I dunno mom..."

"See? We keep coming to the same question and you can't move on...why did you join Cobra Kai."

"Becuase I wanted to prove to Sid that I had talent. That I was useful and that I was right and he was wrong. I'm sorry mom. I'm sorry for causing so many fights between you and Sid. I'm sorry I wasn't a good son. I'm sorry I was drunk at your funeral and I'm sorry that I hurt you so much."

Johnny was sweating like a pig and he groaned

"It's so...hot..."

York pulled off the red haired wig and it revealed his graying hair beneath and York added

"Six sides. Six stages. You can do this."

The elevator doors opened and Daniel could see his entire family waiting for him at the cliff and he slowly walked over

"This is what the training was for. Save the world. Save Daniel. Save yourself."

York gave off a cryptic smile and leaned back as Johnny asked shakily

"What will happen to you?"

"I'll stay for now. It's better for you."

"Who are you?"

"You always thought of me as the brother you wish you had, right? Maybe I'm that. Or maybe my purpose was just to get you to this moment."

"I don't understand."

"It's ok...it's ok. C'mon don't get distracted."

Daniel's footsteps crunched the foliage as he approached Mr. MiYagi and the aged man smiled and added

"You take long enough Daniel-san."

"I got lost...I found my way again."

"It's why we all here. What you wanna say?"

"I'm sorry....I'm sorry I wanted you to give up everything to help me. I'm sorry I stole my college funds without permission to bulid a business. I'm sorry I'm a liar. I'm sorry I was awful at all of you so many times. I'm sorry I smashed up my bike. I'm sorry I read your telegrams and looked through your things. I'm sorry...I am so tremendously sorry for all that I've done."

"None of that matters son. We forgave you already." Lucille began

"The reason why I learned MiYagi Do was so that I could make you all proud. I wanted to show you guys that I could do something and that I could stand up and be a real man..."

"Son...remember what I told you when dad died?"

"I don't wanna say it please ma..."

"It's not gonna work. We all are tired too and we all wanna go."

"Sometimes people leave and we don't know why." 

All four of them hugged and wept and sobbed and held on for one last time as MiYagi, Lucille and Albert LaRusso left Daniel and their son, and protege just sat down on the grass.

Johnny was busy typing in codes and figuring out the math behind the machinery as York urged him on and the door clicked as Johnny sobbed and held onto his mother and his friend for as long as he could and Tommy added

"Please...tell the truth at the trial. Don't deny that woman the justice she deserves. Please. For her sake. Don't side with that step brother...I know you, you're a good man, you will do the right thing in the end. I have faith in that."

Johnny stepped through the door and found himself in a empty commons room which was pure white and noticed a tiny Daniel LaRusso sitting and Johnny asked

"You ok?"

"Yeah."

"Where is your mom?"

"Shes gone."

The lights flickered and turned white and Johnny opened his eyes and he could hear the message

"Welcome back subjects. Welcome back. Congratulations, your experience here at the ULP Phase III drug trial is complete." From Dr. Azumi


	18. Option C

The lights flashed and whirled and alternated in the ambiance light above subjects as they were unconcious. The lights soon stopped flashing and settled on a pure, harsh, medical bright white light as the subjects awoke from their sleep.

I opened my eyes, the light pierced through my eyelids, I sighed and groaned as I adjusted to my new mind, that had been sandblasted clean and free from the flaws of my old mind. I was pure, I was free, but I was going to be thrown back into an impure world. Was this experience even worth the pain, the sadness, the humiliation and the hurt that I had experienced?

I got up from the chair after the technician removed my pulse ox clip and the blood pressure cuff and I walked down the narrow corridor as Muramoto told all of us Odds

"Congratulations, you have completed the 72nd iteration. You are healed."

I breathed out a heavy sigh and when I entered the commons room, the Evens were staring at all of us, it felt so strange, I felt so scared, like a cattle waiting to be slaughtered in the slaughterhouse. I knew that I was going to experience a similar feeling at the trial.

Muramoto told all of us

"One more thing, you all will go through a final proximity test to determine the results of the U.L.P Phase III trial."

Of course, becuase I was the one with the lanyard that was boldly labeled "One." I was first, I left the commons room and went into the proximity test room, if you wanna know what the test room is like, it's like having dozens of microphones and cameras shoved down your throat while you are hooked up to dozens of wires and machines while there is a clicker determining whether or not you are able to be honest and clear about the reflections you have seen.

Muramoto is quite an odd character, his smile is enigmatic and the camera zooms in on me as he asks the question

"Subject one, describe to me your emotional state."

I am taken aback by that question, there is not much I could come up with at this moment, I'm confused and lost as to whether or not being honest will do me any good. I simply take a deep breath and answer

"I feel...clear...like a part of me that used to be there, it is gone. Like the crutch, the narrative I used to have, it's all gone, there is no way I can make sense of the story of my life. I don't understand how did a computer know more about me, than I did know about myself...its in a way, almost frightening."

Muramoto answered

"The reflections are designed to tear down the blind spots and to attack any personal narratives that are used in the process of self-pity and the prevention of moving on from the past. So, moving on, can you tell me what your reflections were trying to tell you Mr. One?"

"My reflections were telling me that the people that I relied on, the people that I used as objects for my blame, the people that I hated and the fact that I projected my personal daddy issues onto Kreese, it was pathetic of me to do so. I should be more competent in handling my issues, I was struggling with financial issues lately becuase I took up drinking again and I wasn't able to stop gambling with the furries. The furries were so pissed at me that they threw me out of the casino. If my mom knew that I had been thrown out of a casino, much less gambling with the furries like that, she would have been so pissed at me."

"So you think that if you had never gambled, nor struggled with your finances, you never would have agreed to the Neberdine Pharmaceuticals experiment, correct?"

"Is this therapy now? I thought this was supposed to be better than that."

"This is not therapy, this is science. Can you tell me why did your reflections show you negotiating with the military for the murder of a alien named Ernie?"

I was really confused as to why I would ever dream of a frigging alien exploding like that, it was creepy and disgusting in so many ways. I didn't really know how to understand why I was seeing that reflection

"I think it was becuase I saw myself as the savior, the hero of this world...you see, I constantly was convinced that I was the chosen one. So in a way, i guess Gertie was trying to help me live out my fantasy I suppose."

"Would you say that you are better off before or after the C pill."

"After the C pill. In a way, the mind gets easily fixated on things that it has never experienced before and to give it the experience that it desires, can help it move on from the fantasy. I think I am better off now...but in a way, the healing process is still incomplete."

"You must complete the rest of the healing process yourself, the G.R.T.A is a powerful supercomputer that is capable of billions of calculations per microsecond but the rest of the healing process is up to you. You mentioned that in your second reflection, you saw Subject Nine as the one who betrayed you, how do you feel, now that he has redeemed himself and saved you in the third and final reflection?"

"I feel that I have learned that the human race is more complex than we give it credit for, that you should never underestimate the power of a man with influence over others. That man, subject nine had much power, he had influence, but he did not abuse it to the extent that I did. I was not worthy of the power I was given, the trust, the respect, none of it ever belonged to me."

Muramoto smiled once more and bowed to me and responded

"The 72nd iteration is completed, Congratulations. You may collect your things, an orderly will come around to collect the uniform and shoes and will escort you to the door."

I bowed back and went into my pod, packing my things and putting them in the bag and I changed back into my suit and leather shoes and found my old, worn headband and I held onto it and tossed it in the garbage can and left. I handed in the things that Neberdine gave me at the beginning of the study and I went to the tunnel where the woman told me 

"Remember your NDA."

And I was signed out of the ULP Phase III Neberdine Pharmaceuticals drug trial.


	19. Option CII

Daniel LaRusso's eyelids fluttered open as his conciousness seeped back slowly into his limbs and he groaned as his skull throbbed and he sniffled softly at the memory of MiYagi, Albert and Lucille leaving him forever. They all were gone for good, it was time to stop pretending that they were ever going to come back in the first place anyway. He could hear the neutral, toneless voice of Azumi telling them all

"Welcome back Subjects. Welcome back. Congratulations, your experience here at the ULP Phase III drug trial is finally complete."

The orderlies and nurses came in and removed the pulse ox clip and the blood pressure cuff and soon LaRusso left the soundproofed room as Dr. Muramoto greeted him saying with a eerie and strange, yet enigmatic and charming smile that you would see on the faces of CEOs. He bowed to each of the Odds as they left towards the commons room and soon Nurse Carl went to the Odds and reminded them

"Before you are discharged, you are to conduct the third and final proximity test before you are allowed to change. And a friendly reminder that the patented Neberdine shoes and uniform cannot be taken with you at the end of the duration of this drug trial."

Daniel watched as Johnny stood up after being called in by Dr. Muramoto and he waited for his turn, in the meantime, he realized that Ali Mills was a blonde bitch who used and abused him for her own personal gains and left him for a football player from UCLA when it suited her and when he was no longer of any use to her. He was angry that he fell for her honeyed words and he despised the fact that she left him in tears and it hurt him so deeply that he chose to smoke to forget the pain, and that was around the time that he and Mike Barnes went at it in the Tournament and it nearly crippled him again!

Daniel snorted, all the shit he went through, all that he had done for those around him, the payback was certainly not worth it at all. His heart was filled with a silent and determined anger and a renewed resolve to regain his balance that he had lost from Mr. MiYagi's death and finally move on from his loss. He was hurting from his pain, but not as much as he used to hurt anymore. Soon Dr. Muramoto called out

"Mr. Nine? Please come in for the final proximity test."

Daniel stood up from his chair and left towards the room with the cameras and mics pointed at his face and the TV screens that recorded his micro expressions were pointed at Dr. Muramoto so he could determine if Daniel was telling the truth about his reflections and what he had seen when he had taken the drug. The orderlies hooked Daniel up to the polygraph machine and there was a clicker that would determine his honesty level based off of his physiological responses. Dr. Muramoto smiled pleasantly, he looked like someone who was a friend, a teacher, someone who would protect you, he began

"Subject Nine, describe to me your emotional state."

"Honestly...I feel sandblasted...tired."

"You want to take a nap?"

"Yes...in a way, I guess sleep sounds nice. My dreams...it felt like an escape."

"Escape from what? Your reality? You described yourself in the second proximity test as 'Depressed'"

"In a way, yes, I am afraid to face myself for what I truly am...I suppose that's what's holding me back. The fact that I can't face my past in order to face the future, it is a more serious roadblock that I had once thought it was. Also, I think this is an escape from me...myself as who I truly am, I am a person with flaws who has made horrible mistakes and that's ok, that's part of life. That we all make mistakes, we stop learning when we stop making mistakes. We do need to however draw a border at making mistakes and being careless." 

"What do you think your reflections are trying to tell you, Mr. One?"

"I think it was trying to tell me about how ungrateful I was to my mom and how I treated her like crap especially when she lost her job and dad had been killed in a wreck and I was already causing myself trouble in high school in Newark. I had a record of starting fights and brawls and it was becuase I didn't have enough attention, I tried to gain her attention..."

"By getting yourself in trouble, did you ever get the attention you ever sought after?"

"No, I did not get the attention that I sought after. I fucked up my mom's life and made it difficult for her to stay in Newark. I hurt her so much, I destroy everything that I touch. I even ruined Cobra Kai."

"In your reflections, it is quite clear that Cobra Kai is the villain. Why do you Express regret over the destruction of an enemy?"

"Becuase Johnny and the Cobra Kai were not my enemies, it was John Kreese becuase he was using them as tools to project an image of a masculine man who is a war veteran and a badass. I somehow doubt he was telling the truth. He was a pretty manipulative bastard."

"So you are now blaming your problems on Kreese again?"

"Oh shit? I already am?" 

"Yes, you are. You are projecting your blame again onto him."

"All right, it's my fault, I was insecure about my image since I was the one who had attacked Johnny. I was the one who played the prank on him in the bathroom when he was trying to light up a cigar."

"Now we are finally moving somewhere. At any rate, your experience here at the ULP Phase III trial is over and the drug trial is finished. You can be discharged."

And Daniel told Patricia Lugo at the desk when he was being discharged

"I am really sorry I blackmailed you. I really am. There was no van, nobody would hurt your daughter. I promise."

"I hope it was worth it. Please remember that you signed an NDA."

Daniel went outside where Johnny was waiting for the bus in the rain and Johnny began

"You know...I guess this is it then."

"Yes...this is it."

"I wanted to say that I won't follow you around or anything like that. I promise."

"I wasn't thinking that you would do that Johnny."

"I tend to get fixated on people."

"Oh I know...I've seen it personally."

He waved down a cab and got it, Johnny grabbed the bus that soon followed after and rode the bus home and slept on the way home. 

Daniel arrived at the Chinatown section of San Francisco and unlocked his shared apartment and just flopped on the couch and fell asleep.


	20. Option CIV

Johnny Lawrence walked towards the witness box as if he were a prisoner being summoned to execution, his heart beat rapidly just underneath the sternum, just like the time when he confronted the Fur Lords and their Uzis, unarmed, trying to rescue Wendy the lemur as all the bullets flew around him, that reflection taught him the value of protecting all that is vulnerable and all that is weak. At the witness box, his name being called by the prosecutor and his heart freezes as he knows, he will soon be sworn in, locked in to telling about everything and anything that either Prosecution or Defense asks him and he knows that Defense will try to inlay verbal traps at every sentence, every word he says, they will try to use it all against him and most of all, they will use his meltdowns and his hospitalization from 84' against him and that was going to be a nightmare in of itself, not to mention the fact that he had attempted suicide by jumping off the building and lost so much blood that he nearly died from massive internal hemorrhaging that day.   
He sat down on the witness chair, the hot seat on which he sat upon, his heart thundering in fear as the bailiff brought over the Bible and said   
"Please raise your right hand."  
Johnny raised his right hand and obeyed the crisp and stern command of the bailiff and the bailiff continued   
"Do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the truth, nothing but the truth and the whole truth?"  
Johnny knew he was doomed from the moment when he responded unequivocally   
"I do."  
He sat down again in his chair and then he looked towards his brother who was a rapist, his eyes were filled with a sort of nothingness and Johnny was terrified for his life, he knew that his brother Ryan Weinberg would destroy his name and sue him to no end if the prosecutor didn't win the case, and his wrath was nothing of that compared to that of Sid Weinburg and his wife who would stop at nothing to bring down the man that they had raised with their blood, sweat and tears and was now standing against one of their own, threatening to tear apart the family with whatever he had to say and they feared his words, his words had the power to bring down a oil and media titan down into crashing, burning flames and they knew it was a matter of time before their grip, their power, their fearmongering, their abuse of power, their coverups, their horrors of what they did to silence the accusers and to keep themselves in power and to destroy all opposition and to keep all the wealth cornered to themselves to keep fueling their greed and their corrupt souls as they ate away at the souls of the mindless, brainless dead drones that were broken.   
Johnny was questioned over and over by the Prosecutor who told him   
"Where were you on the day of question, on the day of April 27th, 2008?"  
"I was at the penthouse on the top of the tower, waiting for my step brother Ryan to come in as we had things to discuss, namely over my share in the company at the time which was a minority 6% and I wanted to bump up my stake to 10% as I believed that since I was the first step son of Sid Weinburg and therefore I was the oldest and that meant the majority stake should have belonged to me, but he never came, I was frustrated because he constantly blew me off and would put off the shareholder's meeting and it was antagonizing to say the very least. I then left the penthouse and went downstairs to the conference board room and saw my...my...my step brother raping a woman, she was screaming and crying aloud and I was frozen, hiding behind the door, he...he proceeded to...urinate on her...and...spit on her, he threated her, saying that our step dad would destroy her and her career if anyone found out and then left her in a puddle of filth and cum. I came in as soon as he left and put my jacket around her, reassured her that I was gonna find her help...I never thought or imagined my step brother capable of rape, and yet, that is what he did, he raped that woman...and left her in his filth."  
Johnny took a deep breath as he gazed towards the Prosecutor and the prosecutor then asked   
"Did you assist the woman?"  
"Yes. I took her to the hospital, however I was asked to leave during the rape kit and I left as she asked, the last thing I wanted to do was to intrude onto whatever was left of her autonomy and so I left the hospital, feeling useless, not knowing what else to do to help her really."  
Johnny was soon dismissed from the stand as the prosecutor played surveillance tape of the rape and it caused the victim to nearly burst into tears, having everyone seeing how she was violated in such a disgusting manner, even Lawrence knew he had done the right thing by standing against his step brother, he wanted to comfort her, hold her and reassure her that things would be ok, but he was far from sure, far from certain about the future. He, too was frightened and wished for things to be ok, but he knew that things would only begin to fall apart, whatever the verdict may be.   
He was soon called up by the defense to be cross examined by them as well, his heart racing and racing with anxiety as he walked back to the chair and the judge reminded him  
"Reminder that you are under oath of penalty of perjury Johnny Lawrence. Defense counsel, please proceed."  
The defense then barraged Johnny with questions of his past mental hospitalization and they were trying to create reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors by asking him  
"Were you, at any point referred to, or sought the help of a psychiatrist due to psychosis or psychosis related disorders?"  
"Yes."  
"Were you hospitalized in a mental hospital at any point whatsoever?"  
"Yes."  
"Were you ever at any point, diagnosed or tested for Bipolar II, I or any mania related disorders?"  
"Yes"  
"Are you often unable to discern reality from the hallucinations that you see?"  
"Yes, but my hallucinations are controlled by medication."  
"And if you don't take your meds, what happens?"  
"I am vulnerable to hallucinations and to BLIPs"  
"So you may indeed...perhaps...have hallucinated what you have seen, if you were, theoretically were to forget to take your pills."  
The prosecutor took this opportunity to cry out  
"Objection, spectulation."  
The judge nodded "Granted."  
And the back and forth grilling continued until it was time for recess.


End file.
